Long Distances
by Laceburner
Summary: Over four years ago, she decided what she wanted to be. Over three years ago, she agreed to be a babysitter. Over a week ago, she met her future. And, damn, she didn't expect it. But it doesn't matter, it would never work, because in all honesty, he's thirty feet tall, and she's scared of heights. Relationships can always survive long distances though, right? Optimus Prime/OC.
1. Chapter 1

**This stoy is a request, which is why I'm publishing it now. It will not be a weekly update, like SJAL, but will be updated every once in a while. I will do request stories, but will not publish one of my own stories until I have finished SJAL. Request stories are not weekly updates, but are updated as often as possible. Plus, with school, my foals and showing season, updating for LDs will be extremely sporadic. This goes along the movie storyline, but Sunstreaker will be included, because I love him. :D Anyways, to the person who requested this - I'm not naming names - I hope you enjoy, and PM after you finish reading to tell me how it is! **

**LDs will not be extremely long in chapters because I need to write other stories too! Enjoy, I only own my OCs, no one else. **

**Without anymore notes, I present to you, _Long Distances! _Don't forget to review!**

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Jessica Robbins pulled in to a long gravel driveway in her 2011 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, the rocks being kicked up by her back tires.

Her school bag clunked around in the back seat, next to a black and white spotted Great Dane - Ollie -, who was wagging his tail as she pulled the Jeep to a stop and pulled the parking brake up. She reached behind her and shouldered her school bag, filled with books of homework that she intended to finish later today. Just as she jumped out of the Jeep - quite literally, she had her Dad lift it, and replace the standard sized tires with forty inch tires with massive tracks - a squeal resounded from the house and the screen door flew open as a little three year old in a pink shirt and leggings, with a tutu fastened around her waist, bounded down the steps almost flew towards Jessica.

"Jessy!" she yelled as said brunette bent down and picked her up, only to spin her in a hug.

"Oh, there's my little Annabelle." she said, a bark came from the back of the Jeep, and Annabelle's Mom walked out.

"Hey Jessica." she greeted

"Evening, Mrs. Lennox." she smiled, placing the little blonde girl back on the ground

"How was school?" she asked, leaning against the Jeep. Originally, when Jessica was hired to babysit Annabelle, and she pulled up in a massive, black, _forty _inch lifted Jeep that had twenty different lights around it and four light bars, Mrs. Lennox had been sceptical, but when she returned that night to find her one year old soundly asleep, and Jessica still awake, despite the fact that it was three in the morning and the poor girl was probably exhausted from school the previous day, she relaxed.

Annabelle even began calling the Jeep _Darth Vader_ because of the sound of it's engine, and that fact that it was black. Whenever Annabelle managed to bribe Jessica to go into town with her, she had to be actually picked up and placed in the Jeep instead of crawling in, another reason why she liked it. She said it reminded her of a man, presumably a family friend, named Ironhide's truck.

She wasn't sure who _Ironhide_ was, but if he liked lifted vehicles, Jessica figured they'd get along if they ever met.

"Well, I'm in Grade twelve, so, you know... I solved math equations that involved numbers and letters-" Annabelle _'eww'_ed, "then Dad picked me up for another lesson with the Mack."

Jessica, more than anything in her life, wanted to be a truck driver. And not just short distance, she wanted to go all over. Her step-Dad, who was now 57, owned a Mack truck, and he helped teach her to drive so she could get her ACZ license soon. She was really excited, and the Mack seemed to like her.

"I remember Grade twelve. Seems so much more complicated now." Sarah pondered as Annabelle wrapped her hand around Jessica's index and middle finger.

"It is." Jessica nodded with wide eyes.

"Well, come on in Jess, you look starving. We still have some dog food for Ollie too. You might have to look around for human food though."

Said Great Dane barked, his floppy ears flopping around as he shook his head.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Jessica waved off "You just go get ready for your trip, I'll take Annie into town to get dinner."

Sarah jerked back just a little "Really?"

"Yeah, you hired me to care for Annie while you're gone. We'll pick you up a coffee or something, too. Two cream, three sugar, right?" Jessica asked, buckling up a smilie Annabelle.

"Yeah, actually. Thanks for remembering. and you're sure you don't mind watching Annie for the week?" Sarah smiled

"No problem. Of course I don't. This week I have a spare first and last period so I can drop her off at school and pick her up."

"Thanks again, Jess."

"Don't worry about it, go finish packing for Vegas." Jessica said as she rounded the front of the Jeep and climbed in. She shut the door behind herself and started the beast up. The engine revved and rumbled, and Jessica watched Sarah enter the house and close the door, before she pushed down the gas pedal. The Jeep rolled forward with a lurch, and Jessica steered the wheel right over a pile of gravel that had been there for close to two years now. Annabelle loved it when she went off road with the Jeep, so she tended to go to the places that she knew were safe when they were together.

"Hi Ollie." Annabelle smiled to the Great Dane who stuck his head over the centre console as they rolled onto the road.

He made a grumbling sound as Annabelle scratched his right ear. When he was a pup he had five diffeent ear infections, only in his right ear, so he loved it when you scratched it there.

They drove into town, and Jessica looked at Annabelle when they hit a red light.

"What do you want?" she asked "And not McDonalds." she added quickly.

"Aw, poopy." Annabelle said and crossed her arms "Jubilee's Burger Joint."

Jessica pulled into a little diner's parking lot and turned the Jeep off as Annie jumped out. Jessica opened her door and pushed the seat forward for Ollie to jump out.

Jubilee was an older woman who ran her family's diner with her son's help, and she **loved **dogs, so Ollie always went in with them. Besides, everyone in town knew Jessica, her parents and Ollie. Jessica's Dad and Mom divorced when she seven, and her Mom found a new boyfriend within three months who was so much nicer than her Dad. His name was Harry, and both he and Jessica's Mom agreed not to marry again. Jessica agreed, marriage didn't somehow make love official, it just cost a lot of money for a sheet of paper. Plus, Jessica's Dad, her real Dad, was in an army force of some kind, which was killed the marriage, and wasn't home often. He sent letters and called as often as possible to Jess, though.

Annabelle climbed onto Ollie's back, who laid down on the cement until she was securely on, and holding his collar for balance.

Jessica opened the door for the pair, and Ollie trotted in.

"Hey Mr. Holdsworth." Jessica smild to an older man, probably in his early seventies, who delivered Jessica's parents their firewood.

"Afternoon, Jessica."

She smiled as Jubilee walked out of the back, and smiled at her

"Hey Jess, what's it gonna be tonight?" she asked

"Tell her, Annie."

Annabelle looked over the counter top, not that hard of a task when you ride a _Great Dane_, and and up at the screens on the wall.

"A number 2 with apple juice." she ordered

"Hey! What do we say?" Jessica asked

"Please?" Annie added, smiling.

"Sure sweety. What about you, Jess?" Jubilee smiled

"Nothing for me. A coffee for Mrs. Lennox, two cream three sugar." Jess added

Jubilee punched the things into the cash register and nodded, "I'll be out in a minute."

Jess nodded and reached up to run her index finger over her septum ring. She had four pericings, one on her septum - extremely small, not one of those over done things -, both nostrils and her belly button. They were done individually, and for separate reasons.

Ollie huffed and walked over to a three person family in a booth, and whined at them. The little boy, probably just pushing thirteen, snorted, but gave him a piece of meat.

He gobbled it about two seconds, and barked an apprecation, then trotted away, Annabelle bouncing along on his back.

"Hey Jessica." Grayson, Jubilee's son, said, walking out of the back with a paper bag and coffee "Here."

"Thanks, Grayson." she smiled, handing him a twenty dollar bill, "Keep the change."

"Thanks Jess. Bye Ollie, bye Annie."

Annabelle waved to him, and Ollie barked, standing by the door. Jess pushed the door open with her hip as the dog walked out and towards the Jeep.

Annabelle jumped down from Ollie's back as Jess opened her door, and pushed her in. Ollie jumped in the back seat, and Jess closed the door, then walked to her side. She jumped in, closed her door and started the Jeep up.

She passed the bag over to Annie, who grasped the top of the bag to hold it as the Jeep's engine started up and it rolled out of the parking lot, into the not so busy street.

When they reached the house, Sarah was still at the house. Annie barged through the door on top of Ollie - no surprise there - and placed the bag of food on the living room coffee table.

"Mommy!" she yelled.

"Right here Annie." Sarah said, walking out of the bathrrom, wearing jogging pants and a sweater.

"You look comfy." Jess commented, closing the door behind herself

"I am. You're **sure** that you don't mind watching her for the week?" Sarah asked

"Pfft, we're good." Jess smiled. Sure, it was a long time, but Jessica lived five minutes from their house, and if there was an emergency, Mr and Mrs Lennox had twenty five acres to get away. Plus, Annabelle loved Jessica, and Jessica love Annie.

"Alright, well. Annie come give me a kiss." Sarah said as she took the coffee Jessica offered her.

She crouched down and kissed her little girl, then stood up.

"Thank you, again, Jessica." she said as she grabbed her luggage.

"Have fun with the ladies! Text me when you guys are in Vegas!" Jess said as she and Jessica watched her enter her 2009 Honda Civic, and drive off.

"Come on, let's eat Annie."

* * *

Jessica sat in the living room, finishing up calculus homework that she didn't quite understand, and listening to Annabelle as she danced in her playroom upstairs. Ollie had gone with her, acting as her riding dog again. He never left Annabelle's side during the times that Jessica babysat Annie.

There was a knock on the door and Jessica took one small sip of her coke, then dropped her books and pencil on the coffee table and walked over to open the door. It was a middle aged man who wore army greens.

"Oh, hello. You must be Mr. Lennox." Jessica greeted

"Yeah, uh.. who are you?" he asked

"I'm Jessica, Annie's babysitter."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard of you. Sarah speaks highly of you. Where is Sarah?" he asked as Jessica stepped to the side to let him in.

"She went to Las Vegas with her friends for the week."

"A week?" he asked

"Yes sir." Jessica nodded, then yelled "Annie, your Daddy's home!"

There was a squeal, a bark, and a _'yeehaw'_ before Ollie clomped down the stairs with a purple tutu-ed Annabelle on his back. Ollie barked as he reached the ground and Annie jumped to the ground and into her Dad's arms.

She mumbled something, probably an _'I missed you',_ into his chest as Ollie sat next to Jessica on the ground.

"I missed you too." he said, kissing her head , "Is that Jessica's Jeep outside?" he asked, and Annie nodded

Mr. Lennox stood up and offered a hand for Jessica to shake, which she did.

"Thanks for being responsible enough to watch Annie." he thanked, and she smiled

"I've been watching Annie since I was fifteen, Ollie's been helping since last year."

The Great Dane let out a bark and wagged his tail, and sniffed Mr. Lennox's hand.

"Guess who came with me!" he smiled

"I'onhide!" she yelled, and Mr. Lennox nodded and waved out of the screen door.

A mand, with large shoulders and massive arms, walked through the door "Hey, Annabelle." he said, hugging her on his knee

She wrapped her little arms around him, and when she pulled back she climbed onto Ollie's back.

"Ironhide, this is Jessica, Annie's babysitter." Mr. Lennox said, and Jessica shook Ironhide's hand. He had to be taller than six feet, for sure.

"I've heard a lot about you, Ironhide." Jessica smiled, looking down at Annabelle, who blushed.

"All good things, I would assume." he said; his voice was deep and gravely, with a tint of a.. British accent? Yup, definitely a British accent

"Only the best." she reassured.

"Nice Jeep." he commented.

"Thanks, took two years to find it." she said.

"Annie, have you had supper yet?" Lennox asked

"Yeah, Jessy took me to Jubilee's." she smiled, pointing at the half empty apple juice box.

"Ok, thank you, Jassica."

Jessica shrugged and Ollie trotted upstairs.

"Is it alright if she does that?" he asked

"Don't worry, Annie's been riding Ollie around for over year now." Jessica shrugged

"Alright, well, thanks for taking care of her." he said

"No big deal." she said.

Just as Mr. Lennox opened his mouth to speak, the door opened, and Jessica looked up to see the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen in her entire life.

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**Oh Yoda, I cry, just as I was proof reading, I accidently wrote Birtish accent, not British! :'D, Raise your hand if you have a Birtish accent! Hope you enjoyed! I want a Birtish accent**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yo! Like I said, this isn't going to be a weekly update, but I'm going to try my hardest not to forget this story, which may or may not be hard to do! Only time will tell. And, now Long Distances had a Facebook fan page. I will be posting future chapter spoilers on it for LD, as well as updates on how the chapter is going, and just regular posts about stuff! I normally don't, but one of the fans of my stories suggested I make a page for both stories, so I did! Thanks for all the favorites, and don't forget to REVIEW and vote on the poll on my page!**

**facebook dot com/pages/Transformers-Long-Distances/897334860316786, link is also on my profile!**

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He was honestly the prettiest man she'd ever seen. Not the type of pretty that would make you thnk he's a homosexual, but a pretty that makes you want to just touch him. Not sexually, or anything, but put your hands on him. He was tall, which was kind of a bonus, and everything was proportionate. With Ironhide, his arms were massive to the point where they were out of proportion to his body just a little, and Mr. Lennox' chest was almsot to narrow, but this man... everything was perfectly pieced together. The size of his arm corresponded with his legs muscles, and his neck was the perfect size for his head. Everything **fit**.

He had dark black hair, and wore regular, everyday jeans that were held up with a belt and belt buckle of a cool looking face, with a white wifebeater tucked into his jeans underneath, and a flannel shirt that wasn't buttoned up. His face was Jessica's favorite part of him. He had stubble along his jawlines and chin, but not hair, and the perfect amount of hair on his head. Not alot, to make him look like a girl, but not lacking so much as to make him look bald or aging.

He had extremely defined muscles, that showed themselves off from under the rolled up sleeves, with just the right amount of hair to make him look _manly_, but not so much that it was repulsing. He had to be at least twenty six, but couldn't be over thirty.

"Jessica, this is Optimus. He's the head commanding officer over a military faction. Optimus, this is Jessica, Annie's babysitter." Mr Lennox introduced. Optimus nodded at Jessica, and she smiled back

"Hello. Pleasure meeting you." she attempted, and apparently managed, to keep her voice even.

"The pleasure is mine."

Oh sweet Jesus, his _voooooiiiicccceeee_. It rumbled, and she wondered what it would sound like if- no! She was an innocent girl, who would not fill her mind with bad thoughts!

"Ironhide! Did you see Jessie's Jeep?" Annabelle asked

"I did. It's impressive." Ironhide nodded.

"Yes he is." Annie nodded seriosuly.

"He?" Optimus asked, looking towards Jessica.

"She calles him Darth Vader, and likes to believe it's a man." she explained, "Annie, you ready?"

The little three year old immediately realized what she was talking about, and nodded.

"Where are you going?" Mr Lennox asked

"It's Monday." Annabelle said, as f that would explain everything. When her Daddy continued staring at confusedly, Jessica laughed.

"Monday is ballerina day." she smiled.

"You're a ballerina now?" Ironhide asked.

"Mhm. Every Monday, Jessie drops me off at ballerina class, then takes me for a ride in Mack, then I come home, have a snack, then go to sleep." Annabelle explained, then trotted off to go find her bag.

"Alright, if she calls your Jeep Darth Vader, then who's Ma-" Mr Lennox was interuppted by a bark and a loud laugh, but he continued, "Who's Mack?"

Jessica laughed, "Mack is my Dad's Mack truck. I'm training to be a long distance truck driver."

Realization dawned over his face, and he nodded in understanding, "Do you have your ACZ license yet?" he asked

"Not yet, I have a permit to drive the truck so long as it isn't carrying a load though." she smiled.

Before Mr Lennox could respond, Annabelle bounded down the stairs, carrying a little duffel bag, with Ollie running behind.

"Come on Jessy, let's go!" she cheered, then hopped up on Ollie's back, and the black and white Dane trotted out of the house.

"I'm coming!" she yelled, running to the coffee table to grab her phone, then jogged to the door, "You coming, Mr Lennox?" she asked

"Oh, don't call me that, you can call me Will. But, yeah, we'll tag along." he said.

Jessica held the door open for them, but Optimus didn't exit; instead, he placed a large hand on the door, and she ducked underneath his arm, "Thanks." she smiled.

Annabelle stood by the passenger side of the Jeep, waiting to be let in, with Ollie sitting beside her, his tail wagging back and forth.

Jessica opened the door, let Ollie jump in, then lifted Annabelle into the back seat. The three year old buckled up herself as Jessica rounded the front of her "Darth Vader", pulling herself up into the driver's seat. She slipped the key into the ignition, and listened to the engine start up. Annie squealed when Jessica drove the Jeep over the gravel mound, and a little ways down the front lawn, before sticking to the driveway, turning right as she drove towards town.

She looked in her rear view mirror to se a massive lifted black GMC truck of some kind, and a massive Peterbilt 379, and from what she could see, Longnose, with a custom paint job.

_Gorgeous, stupid, freaking, hot ass truck. _she thought, turning her eyes back to the road. Ollie gave off a bark, and Annie laughed, petting him down his back as he placed his head on her lap.

"He missed you last week." she told Annie. Ollie was on the receiving end of a dog attack two weeks ago, on Tuesday, and wasn't allowed to leave the house for a week and a half, so he couldn't accompany Jessica to bring Annie to ballet class last week.

Annabelle smiled, and kissed his forehead before Jessica pulled to a stop at a stop sign. She looked both ways, then kept going and the two trucks behind her followed. Finally, we made it into town, and Jessica hopped out. She helped Annabelle get out, and Ollie made a whining sound in the back of his throat as he got locked in. Annabelle waved goodbye to him as Jessica brought her into the studio, holding her little hand.

"There's my little _Zvezda__._" an older, but extremely fit woman, wearing a ballet outfit smiled, hugging Annabelle. Annabelle's ballet instructor was originally born in Serbia, but moved to Bosnia with her parents when she was two, and grew up there until she was twenty some years old. She always called Annabelle her "Star" in her Bosnian.

"I'll be back to pick her up at eight?" Jessica asked

"Thank you, Jessica." she smiled, then turned around.

Will, Ironhide and Optimus had followed her in, but she nodded her head to get them to follow. When they got outside, Will's eyebrows furrowed, "We aren't allowed to watch them?"

"Not the kids under ten. They tend to get distracted, and Ms Zoric can't stand it." Jessica said, and Will nodded.

"So, where are we going?" he asked

"I'm going to pick up the Mack, fill up the tank, maybe take it for a wash." Jessica said, pulling her keys out of her pocket, and Will nodded, getting into Ironhide's truck. She led them to her house, and turned her Jeep off.

The Mack sat on the front lawn, in all it's big, black glory. She pulled the key out of the Jeep's ignition, moving the seat forward so Ollie could hop out. He trotted through his massive doggy door. She walked up to the house, dropped her keys in the key bowl, then picked up the Mack's keys from their hook.

"Dad! I'm taking the Mack out." she yelled into the house.

"Alright! Don't die!" he yelled out from somewhere in the house, probably from his work office - he injured his back in a massive motorcycle accident three years ago, and was forced to tele-work since then.

"I won't, thanks for the vote of confidence!" she yelled back, smiling.

"Wouldn't be your Dad without it!"

She laughed at his response, and closed the screen door behind herself. Ollie was sitting on the couch, which leaned against the giant front window, watching as she walked over to the big truck, and opened it's door. Just as she rolled the driver's side window down from inside, the screen door was yanked open, and her Mom stood at the door.

"Jessica, if you come back with a missing ligament, or a dented truck, you'll be grounded for the rest of your life!" her Mother yelled.

"Love you too, Mom!" she shouted, turning the ignition. The engine growled as it started up, and she pulled on the air horn. The deep honk rang through the wheat field across from their house, causing the dogs a few hundred feet down the road to bark. She turned the truck off the lawn, but let Ironhide's truck pass so he was out front. Obviously, Will was either driving, or telling Ironhide where the tractor gas station was.

They pulled into the gas station, and Jessica made sure the truck was aligned before getting out. She opened the gas tank, picked up the nozzle, and flipped the switch on, and waited, leaning against the truck until it was more than likely full. She paid with her Dad's credit card that was only used for gas, then closed everything, got back in, and followed Ironhide's truck, which looked tiny from up in the Mack, down the road. Optimus drove behind her, and she could see his truck's flames in her driver's side mirror.

* * *

Annabelle sat in the passenger's side of the Mack, he fake tutu puffing up with the duffel bag in between them Annie always got jealous because Jessica's seat moved up and down in accordance to the bumps on the road, but the bench didn't.

They were headed for Annie's home, and Jessica could see the blonde forcing her little blue eyes to stay open. It was eight thirty, she was normally asleep by now.

Jessica pulled into the drive way, parking off to the side instead of in the driveway, and picked Annabelle up in her arms. She kicked her door open, handing Annabelle over to Will, then reaching back in and grabbing the duffel bag before closing the door. Will walked inside with his daughter, and Jessica locked the door to the Mack. She started walking up to the door, but when she saw Optimus holding it open, waiting for her, she began jogging. She thanked him as she passed, and heard him close the door as she placed the bag on the kitchen floor.

She landed on the couch with a huff, letting her legs fly up, and then land loudly on the floor, before pulling her shoes off to reveal her Legend of Zelda ankle socks. She **loved** Legend of Zelda. She was seventeen when she decided to get a Legend of Zelda tattoo on her thigh, and loved showing it off by wearing shorts. When she was fifteen, she purchased a air of white Vans, and had one of her artist friends fill them with Legend Of Zelda stuff.

She outgrew them last year, and meant to by another white pair, but wound up buying a dark grey pair instead. She wore them all the time, they were her favorite. Will came down the stairs, and Jessica looked over the back of the couch, following him as he sat on the couch, next to her.

"She pass out?" Jess asked with a smile.

"As soon as she got under the blankets." she said. Ironhide sat next to Will, and Optimus flopped down next to Jessica as she propped her feet up on the coffee table. Will picked up the remote to turn the TV on, and Jessica let her head fall on to the back of the couch when it was just the news with a groan.

"Change it!" she begged, and Will laughed, but changed it anyways. She sunk further down the couch, then watched whatever Will was watching. Eventually, she scooted up and reached behind the couch to grab the pillow and blanket she was going to use that night. She spread the blanket over her legs, plopped the pillow on a lap and placed her head on it, then closed her eyes to fall asleep.

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**There you have it! Chapter 2, hope you enjoyed! **


	3. Chapter 3

**My apologies for this wait! I feel so bad, because I haven't updates in FOREVER! This is a slightly longer chapter, but my Christmas Break has started so I'm going to buckle down and focus on writing chapters for my stories! Also, for my readers of my other stories, SJAL will be updates on X-Mas Eve, which is six days away! Anyways, enjoy this and don't forget to REVIEW!**

"Annabelle, come on! You have to go to school!" Jessica yelled up the stairs.

"I'm coming!" a tiny voice resounded from her bedroom, before a little blonde girl bounded down the stair case in purple leggings and a black t-shirt with a ballerina on the front, "Ready." she smiled

"Go say bye to your Dad, we gotta head." Jessica said, following her little charge into the living room. The mini ballerina sat atop of Ollie's back, holding his chain collar as a source of balance. The big dog gave off a deep bark when he stopped in front of William and his team mates.

Jessica leaned down to grab her phone, picking her school bag up and shouldering it while the purple-pant blonde girl hugged her Dad.

"I'll see you when Jessica picks you up from school." the Military Captain said, kissing the top of his daughter's head. Annabelle jumped off the couch, and walked over to grab her princess bag.

"You," Jessica smiled, grabbing Ollie's snout in one hand, "Be good for Mr. Lennox." she said, kissing the curve of his snout, "We'll see you guys after school." Jessica said as the large dog snorted, picking Annie up and placing her on one hip.

"Bye Daddy!" Annabelle yelled as they walked out the front door, "Bye Ironhide!"

Jessica threw her head back with a small laugh, "That's nice, exclude Optimus."

Just as she said that, Jessica heard someone huff out a chuckle.

"I wasn't done." Annie sassed

"Oh, then by all means, continue." Jess gestured.

Annabelle scrunched her face up, "I never say bye to Optimus. I don't really need to, do I?"

Jessica laughed again, "We'll see you after school, Optimus."

Optimus chuckled, and waved after them as Jessica carried Annabelle to her Jeep. The blonde girl buckled herself into the seat as Jessica walked around the front of the Jeep and hopped in.

"You all buckled in?" she asked her charge.

"Mhm." Annabelle smiled, and Jessica drove the Jeep along the road until they reached the elementary school. Annabelle kissed Jess's cheek, waving goodbye as she was met with five or six little girl, obviously her friends, and they all began talking. Jessica started her Jeep up, driving down the road until she reached the High School Parking lot.

The black Jeep was taller than every vehicle in the lot, and Jess smiled when she saw a red headed girl with big brown eyes, come prancing over to her when she parked the Jeep. Just as Jessica closed her side door, the red head popped up in front of the Jeep and smiled at her.

"Hey Jess." she sang, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Hello Sam. How's your day so far?" Jess asked, smiling.

"My dayeth? The sunrise caressed the horizon with the rays of joy and graced thy's face with something akin to delight. How art thou?" she asked and Jessica smiled.

"I'm good." Jessica said, shouldering her bag.

"Dude, it's no fun when you don't keep it rollin'!" Sam whined, and Jessica laughed again, slipping her keys into her bag.

"It's not that fun when you start it either, Sam." Jess laughed, and her hyper redheaded friend huffed as Jess walked into the school.

She opened her locker, smiling at the guy who had a locker next to her. He was new this year, a grade nine, who was kind of short, and probably hadn't hit puberty yet.

"Morning James. How are you?" she asked, pulling her locker door open. She never bothered with locks, because they were just annoying. They got in her way, she always managed to break hers, and it wasn't like she had anything important in her locker anyway, besides school books.

"Hi Jessica, I'm good." he said back, pulling out his books, "How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks." she smiled, slipping her bag into her locker.

"Hey Peewee." Sam said as she came up beside Jess, smiling at the short guy.

"Morning, Sam." he said shyly.

Jess smiled at him; Sam always seemed too happy, and kind of intimidating, but really she was a giant pain in the butt.

Jessica pulled her bags out of her locker, making sure her phone was in her pocket, before she closed the locker door.

She turned and headed towards her class, Sam prancing behind her.

"I thought you had Gym?" Jessica asked, shifting her books.

"I dropped it for Physics and Chem. I hate working out." Sam scrunched her nose up and Jessica laughed

"As long as you have a good reason." she chuckled, flicking her best friend's arm, "See you at lunch."

"You know it." Sam winked, heading off to the chemistry lab.

Jessica entered her English class, making sure the door was closed behind her, before she slipped into the front desk. Her books clanged against the surface.

"Hey, it's Jessy!" a blonde girl cheered as she walked into the room.

"Hey Tisha, what's up?" Jess asked

"The sky, the ceiling, outer space, aliens, the CN tower in Canada, my energy levels, take your pick." Tisha smiled, then giggled.

Jessica laughed, tossing her head back a little. Tisha took a seat next to her, and the classroom continued filling up until the bell rang and the teacher walked in. He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the date on the board, then turned and smiled.

Jessica opened her binder and grabed her pencil, then sighed when he started talking.

_Oh dear God _she thought.

* * *

Jessica sat in her Jeep, waiting for Annie's school to let out. Everyday at three thirty the elementary school's bell would ring, and the little blonde girl would run out, her back pack bouncing, and do her best to pull herelf into the black, lifted four wheeled vehicle, then they'd drive over to Jess's house, they'd hop into Mack and head back to Annie's home, even when Sarah wasn't gone. It was tradition, and it happened every day. Finally, the bell rang. Jessica turned the Jeep on and sure enough Annie ran out of the building, her pink backpack on her back. Jessica leaned over, popping the passenger's side door open, and Annie hopped in.

"Hey Jessy!" she beamed, closing the door behind her tiny little self.

"How was school Annie?" Jess asked.

"Good! We played boys versus girls dodgeball, and the girls won!" the little blonde beamed.

"That's good." Jess smiled as the little girl climbed into the back seat, and buckled up.

"How was your day at big girl school?" Annabelle asked, plopping her bag onto the floor of Darth Vader.

"Good. I recieved a ninety five percent on one of my essays in English." she said.

"Is that an A?" Annabelle asked as Jessica pulled away from the school parking lot.

"Yep." Jessica smiled, then the little girl started squealing.

"Good job! Yay!" the little three year old cheered in spot.

"Thanks Annie. You ready to go get Mack?" Jessica asked.

Annabelle's eyes widened, her smile got bigger, and she nodded frantically.

Jessica laughed, "Okay."

They drove for a little while longer, before Jessica pulled the Jeep into the big driveway. Jessica helped Annabelle out and ran inside to grab the Mack key. When she came back out Annabelle was attempting to reach the truck handles.

"You are way to short, Bellie. Hold on." Jessica said, opening the door, and helping the little girl into the truck. She closed the door, before rounding the hood and getting in the driver's side.

She started up and Annabelle squealed, pulling the string to make the horn blow, deep and loud, and Jessica rolled out of the driveway and onto the road, clenching her jaw when they accidently rolled over a pot hole.

"Sorry baby." she apologized, rubbing the wheel.

Annabelle played on Jess's cell phone until they rolled into the driveway of the bungalow. Annabelle jumped out of the tractor trailer, waiting for Jess to hop out.

Grabbing both back packs, Jess closed the door and Annabelle took Jess's hand in hers as they walked up the porch.

"Daddy, we're home!" Annabelle yelled as they entered the house, and Jess dropped the bags by the closet.

There was a deep bark, and Ollie came bounding over.

"Ollie!" Annabele squealed, and hugging his chest. He laid down for her, and she climbed up. He stood up and waited for Jess to pull her shoes off. She smiled when she turned around to see him.

"Hi handsome. I missed you too." she assured the bllack and white dog, kissing his forehead before he turned and walked into the living room.

"Hi Daddy!" Jess heard Annabelle yell as they reach the living room.

Jess walked into the living room, sitting on the arm of couch, smiling when she noticed Annabelle hugging her Dad, her head in his chest. Ollie sat in front of her, seeming to watch the TV. There was an explosion on the screen and he tilted his head with a curious look in his eyes.

Jess snorted, standing off the arm of the couch and walking into the kitchen. She grabbed a glass and filled it with OceanSpray Cranberry/Raspberry juice. She took a sip and heard nails click against the hardwood floor as Ollie trotted up to sit in front of her.

She put her drink on the counter and crouched in front of him. She rubbed the back of his right ear and he whined, leaning his head that way. She kissed his forehead, and hugged him.

He huffed, lifting his left paw to place it on her shoulder in a hug that she trained him to do when she needed a hug.

"You wanna go out?" she asked. He whined which transformed into a bark, and she stood up. She slipped her feet into her VANS, and opened the door. He galloped out, picking up a stick and she laughed. She grabbed both sides of it and tried to pull it from his mouth. He growled playfully, and the tug-of-war began. When she managed to win, she took it and flung it down the lawn towards the backyard. He turned and ran after it, watching it in the sky. He opened his mouth and jumped into the air just in time to catch it in his mouth and ran back to her. This went on for about ten minutes, before Ollie tackled her to the ground and kissed her face.

"Hi, I love you to." Jess laughed, petting his back.

She loved Ollie. She seriously did, he was the best dog she could ever ask for. He was always down to cuddle for three hours, but was ready to go out and walk five minutes later, and he always knew when she needed time alone with just him. He always managed to get her out of uncomfortable situations, and he always found a way to get her the alone time she wanted. He laid on top of her for about five minutes, and she hugged him until she picked the stick up from above her head and he jumped off getting ready to run after it.

He was about halfway down the lawn before her phone buzzed in her back pocket. She pulled it out and answered the call as Ollie ran down the lawn for the stick.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Jess? Hey it's me. How's Annie?"

"Oh hey Mrs. Lennox. She's good, she's with her Dad in the house." Jess said as Ollie trotted back up.

"Will's back?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, he came back last night. Ollie, let go!" Jess exclaimed, pulling on the stick as Ollie clamped his jaws around it, growling playfully as not to let go.

"Damn. If I knew he was coming I would've stayed home." Sarah swore.

"No, no, no, you enjoy Vegas with your ladies, and don't you dare worry about that or I'll kick you in my dreams. Do you wanna talk to Annie?" Jess asked.

There was a laugh on the other end. "Thanks Jess. Yes please."

Jess dropped the phone from her ear, and took a deep breath in. "_Annabelle!_" she yelled as loud as she could, going back to pulling the stick form Ollie, although that was rather difficult with one hand.

"Coming!"

Annabelle ran out of the house from the back porch, bounding down the lawn, three shadows following her.

"Yes?"

"Here, talk to your Mother." Jess said, pulling on the stick.

Annabelle grabbed the phone, and Jess grabbed the other end of the stick.

"Alright, you wanna play rough, let's go." Jess said through her teeth, pulling on the stick.

Suddenly, Ollie let go and Jess fell onto her back with an _'umph'_.

"Ollie!"

The two year old let off a happy bark, bounding around her.

There was a laugh behind her, and she glared at an upside down Ironhide.

"I thought you were nice." she joked. "Annie says you are."

She stood up, and threw the stick, and Ollie took off after it.

"Here Daddy, Mommy wants to talk to you." Annabelle said, and Will took her phone as Ollie caught the stick in the air.

"Jessy, can I throw it?" Annie asked as Ollie trotted back, trying to balance the stick in his mouth.

"Well yes." Jess nodded, and Annabelle smiled as she pulled the stick from Ollie's mouth, and threw it as far as she could.

Ollie cantered after it, and picked it up, running back to them. Instead, he passed them and stopped in front of... Optimus. He dropped the stick at his feet and looked up at the man, waiting.

Optimus leaned down, picking the stick up and Jess watched his muscles flexed as he threw the stick, and she almost panted. Holy crap. Why couldn't a guy like him be in her school?

Ollie sprinted after the stick as fast as he could, seeing as Optimus managed to throw it further than both Jess or Annie, and Annie turned to him, sticking her tongue out.

"Show off." she said, blowing him a raspberry.

Jess laughed as Ollie finally managed to catch the stick, and he began sprinting back as quickly as he could, stick throwing him off balance.

**There ya go! Chapter three! I hope you enjoyed, have a great day! Kisses! Muah! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everybody! I'm so sorry for the long wait, I will admit I sort of abandoned this story because I hate having two stories in the works, and my attention was focused more on my previous, now completed story, as well as writing my current main story. However, I feel like you more than deserve this, as you've waited for SO long. So here you all go! I hoped you all thoroughly, sincerely enjoy!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Shit!" Jess yelled, her voice travelling over the long wheat fields around her.

Ollie stood beside Jess, looking up and down the road, watching over her with interest. She'd gotten spare last period, so she went home to drop her stuff off, only to find one of her neighbors' dogs, Loddie, in her driveway. She slipped Ollie into the back seat, used her extra leash to get Loddie and placed her in the Jeep, then drove her home. It was about a thirty minute drive, but she'd dog-sat Loddie and her brother Frizz once so she knew where they lived.

However, on the drive home, about ten minutes into heading back, she almost ran over a porcupine in the road, and her wheel popped when the animal launched its quill in order to save itself. Thankfully, she managed to swerve around it, not hitting the animal, but she almost lost control of the Jeep. Thankfully managed to keep the wheel, but ended up ruining her tire, and in her attempt to gain control back, she'd taken her passenger side mirror of by clipping a power line pole. On top of that, she slammed into another power line pole. Now, she was stuck on the side of the road, with a ruined tire, a completely dented hood, a missing passenger mirror, and at least a forty five minute walk back to town.

"Son of a bitch!" she yelled, listening to her voice echo.

And the worst part was her cell phone was at about ten percent when she got home so she, being the idiot she was, convinced herself that a phone on ten percent battery could make an hour Jeep ride so that she could plug it in at Sarah's, but it died just after she left her neighbor's place, so now it was useless.

"Ah, fuck me!" she screamed.

Suddenly, there was a large honk, the honk of an air horn from a tractor trailer.

She turned to see a red truck - what looked like a Peterbilt - coming down the road. It took her a second, seeing as in town her Dad was the only one with a truck, but she realized it wasn't a red truck, it was red and blue. Optimus.

He slowed until he reached her, and rolled the deeply tinted window down.

"You need a ride Jessica?" he asked.

Ollie barked at him once, but Jess touched in between his shoulder blades, and he calmed down, however still watched Optimus carefully.

Frustrated, she sighed. "Preferably."

He smiled. "You know what, hold on a second."

He hopped out of his truck, closing the door behind him, and rolled the sleeves of his plaid shirt up to his elbows, then grabbed the front bumper. She watched him pull the Jeep the back of his truck, and hooked him up, making sure that he was in neutral.

"There. When we get to the house I can put your spare tire back on for you, and help you with the hood. I'm sure we can find and install a new mirror. The tire on the back of your Jeep will fit, correct?" he asked.

Jess nodded. "Yeah, it's the right one. Thanks Optimus." she smiled.

"It's of no trouble. Come on, get in." he smiled.

Ollie followed her around the truck and she got in, inviting him in too, and closing the door behind him.

Optimus had gotten in as well, but paused. "Hold on, why don't you come drive? I've been curious to see how well you can." he offered.

"Really?" she smiled, the look of frustration being replace instantly.

He nodded, getting out of his seat to round the truck. She scootched over, buckling up and as Optimus got in the other side, closing the door and doing the same thing.

She smiled; she'd never driven a Peterbilt before, but she'd read online that they were good trucks.

She moved her chair forward to be able to reach the pedals, and moved everything around to make sure it all fit. She noticed Optimus watching her out of the corner of her eye.

"Okay." she mumbled to herself, and smiled when Ollie made a sound that was a cross of a whine and a groan.

She reached over, moving the gear shift; as if in surprise, the truck jolted a little. "Easy buddy." she whispered to him.

The engine growled loudly, and she rubbed her thumb over the top of the gear shift again.

"It's alright, relax." she mumbled, and put it into drive, starting to take off.

The truck grumbled, as if tired, but they pulled off from where Optimus had parked. She looked back to make sure her Jeep was still coming along with them. However, she still noticed that Optimus stared at her. The only difference was this time his stare was intense.

"What?" she asked, looking over at him.

"You treat m-my truck as if he's a person." Optimus noted.

"Well, that's because he is." she said, looking over at Optimus briefly. "He's got an attitude, a personality, habits, and likes and dislikes just like you and I. Just because he doesn't speak doesn't mean he's nothing besides an inanimate object." she shrugged.

"You believe the same about your Jeep?" he asked.

"Of course. Hasn't Annabelle told you about the Jeep's name?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Not as of yet."

She laughed. "I'm surprised. She calls him Darth Vader. He can be really mean to everyone who doesn't normally drive him, and he loves to sass me alot. But I've been driving him for a really long time, so I'm used to it."

He seemed to smile only a little bit or about a second and a half. "Well, you seem to be very responsive to...him." He seemed to hesitate when calling his truck a him.

She shrugged. "He's easy to handle... kind of like you a little. He's quiet; like he's thinking over everything and contemplating every action I make. Makes it easy to drive because whatever I do, he goes with it." she shrugged.

There was a loud honk from behind them, and she looked in the review mirror to see a silver Stingray Corvette.

"Who the hell..?"

"That is a comrade of mine. Just continue on your way, I'll speak to him at the house." Optimus said.

"Ooh, what's his codename?" she asked.

"Codename?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're telling me that Ironhide and Optimus your real names? Or are they codenames given to you by the military?" she asked as she slowed the truck down to she entered the town.

He chuckled a little, but didn't answer as she pulled up to a red light. The Corvette pulled up beside them, and when the red light turned green, he took off, his tires squealing loudly. She took off slowly, and when they passed a group of young kids, she reached up and blew the air horn upon their request. When they reached the house, she slowed, making sure that she'd parked the truck correctly and straight so it was easier for Optimus to get out later, before hopping out. Ollie exited out after Optimus on that side, and Jess opened the Jeep to grab her bag.

However, she couldn't find her phone in her bag, and she knew she put it in there. She pushed herself up, bending over to check in between the seats, and moved her hand until she saw it glint from where it must have fallen onto the floor in front of the passenger seat. She stretched out to reach it, and slipped it into her back pocket, but her foot lost it's place and she almost fell back, off the Jeep.

Almost.

Instead, however, she landed in two largely built, muscular arms covered in plaid down to the elbow, his forearm tattered with odd looking tattoos; not enough to be off-putting, but enough to be noticeable. About three or four on his left arm, and two on his right. All in an unrecognizable writing, which was odd; Jess knew how to speak Mandarin, which is what the majority of those "Chinese tattoos" were written in.

"You okay?" he asked.

Blushing, she pushed herself away. "Uh-I-uh...yeah." she smiled. "Thanks."

His head tilted for a second. "Do you do that often?" he asked.

"Do-Do what?" she asked.

"You don't notice yourself do it, do you? You have a tendency to slip your hair behind your ear." he observed.

"Um.. no, no I've never noticed." she shrugged.

"I'll start working on your Jeep tomorrow. I believe the Lennoxs have tools in the garage to help me, and I can have Ironhide aid me as well." he said, and she nodded.

"Thanks, Optimus. And thanks for -uh, letting me drive your truck." she smiled.

"It was no bother. You're very good. Is driving trucks what you wish to do for a living?" he asked.

"Yeah, I uh.. I want to do long distance driving." she nodded.

"Why?" he asked. "Why long distance?"

"Uh, well I guess because this town. A lot of it reminds me of my Dad, because he's the only reason my Mom and I are here, so.." she shrugged.

"What about your father?" he asked.

She smiled. "That's a secret and a long story I don't think you're prepared to process. I never noticed you had tattoos. What do they say?"

This time, Optimus smiled. "That is a long story that I don't think you are prepared to take in."

"Oh, I see how it is; using my own words against me. Very crafty, sir." she giggled.

He smiled, his shoulders shaking once from a silent chuckle.

"Thanks Optimus, for everything. Especially picking me up. I would've been stuck walking an hour if you hadn't." she smiled.

"Again, it was no bother Jessica." he said.

"You can call me Jess, Optimus. Everybody else does." she shrugged.

"Do you prefer Jess over Jessica?" he asked.

_Not when it comes out of your mouth, holy-_

"No." she shook her head, stopping her thoughts.

_Jesus Jess, he's like eight years older than you_. she scolded herself.

She didn't know it, but he was way older than eight years older than her.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Ollie groaned as he stretched his legs over Jess's lap, his head on the arm of the couch. Jess could hear Annabelle playing on the computer in the playroom upstairs. The TV was playing one of the Superman movies on mute, but Jess was focusing on her calculus homework.

Ollie had gone up with Annie originally, but came back down to lay with his human on the couch about thirty minutes ago. Jess could smell the chicken in the oven that Will had started before he and the boys had left to do some official military thing. Optimus had also taken her Jeep, saying he'd fix it for her while they were out.

She'd also met Sideswipe that day, the boy who drove the Corvette. He was about a year or two older than her, probably about twenty, but he was very... outspoken. As if he didn't have a filter to stop the words. He was very excited and happy. The exact opposite of Ironhide, and it was quite obvious that the two often got into disputes with each other, but their relationship suggested they were friendly jests often times.

Her phone dinged and the screen lit up, and she unlocked it.

_Jess, I'm taking you driving tomorrow, don't forget._

It was from her step-Dad. She smiled; another long distance driving lesson! Score!

_Can Annie come?_

There was a pause, and she went back to homework. Knowing her Dad, he was probably trying to find the Y on the cell phone keyboard.

_Yes, sure._ was the response.

_K, I'll see you tonight_. she sent back.

Ollie suddenly groaned again as he got up and off the couch, and suddenly barked.

"What?" she asked.

He snarled, and suddenly she heard the sound of the smoke detectors going off.

"Annabelle!" she roared, running into the kitchen to turn the stove off, but it hadn't started from there.

Annabelle, knowing Jess very rarely yelled like that, came downstairs. "Yes?"

"You go outside and you wait by the road, ok?" she asked.

Annabelle nodded. "Okay."

Jess attached Ollie's leash onto his collar, and handed him to Annie, who listened to Jess and left the house to go to the road. Jess turned, shoving all her work into her bag and tossing it outside, then heading up to Annie's room. Nothing started from in there. She shoved all of Annie's clothes into a luggage she found in a closet, along with Annie's teddy bear.

Nothing in the master bedroom, although she shoed all of Will's clothes in a luggage, and threw that down the stairs. However, when she went back upstairs the playroom was ablaze. She could easily see it hadn't started from there, which meant there was only one place it could start. She ran downstairs, tossing the two luggage and her bag as far outside as she could. Annie stood on the opposite side of the road, holding Ollie's leash just like Jess had told her.

She moved down to the basement, to see it. The wood heater. Something had been placed on top of it, and obviously caught on fire, and the fire travelled up the vents to the playroom. The basement was a blaze as well, so she ran upstairs to see the west side of the house, and the kitchen in flames, but the living room wall was quickly catching. She quickly unplugged and grabbed her phone, and ran out of the house. She closed the door, grabbing the luggage and running to the opposite side of the road, her face covered in black smoke from the fire. She opened her phone.

"Good job Annie, you did good protecting Ollie for me." she smiled, crouching down to high five the little girl.

"Are you ok Jessy? You all... fiwe-y." she said, motioning to her face.

She chuckled. "I'm fine. I've got your clothes and teddy for you."

Her little face lit up. "Fank you Jessy." she said, hugging her.

Jess smiled, hugging her back briefly, before typing in 911 to the phone, but from the black dots filling her vision, she knew something was a little wrong.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Jess, Annie!"

Jess looked up from where she sat in the back of the ambulance with Annabelle, holding Ollie's head in her hands. She'd been diagnosed with mild smoke inhalation, and heatstroke, but nothing serious enough to warrant a visit to the hospital. The firefighters were still attempting to put the fire out, but hadn't been successful yet.

William ran up to Annabelle, hugging her.

"You ok, baby girl?" he asked.

"I okay, Daddy." she answered, and Jess smiled.

"Are you the father?" a police officer asked.

"Yes, Captain William Lennox, what happened?" he asked.

"Miss Robbins reported that the source of the fire was something placed on top of the wood heater in your basement. The flames travelled up the vents and took over the house from there. You're very lucky to have such a brave babysitter, sir." the officer said before walking away.

"What did you do?" Ironhide asked.

"I sent Annie and Ollie to the road, and went back in to save your clothes and find the source of the fire." she explained, pointing to the luggage beside them on the ground.

Will looked at her thankfully. "Thank you."

"Jessy saved teddy too!" Annie exclaimed, hugging the bear tighter. "She got in hay lay shun though." Annie said.

"What?" Will asked.

"I was diagnosed with mild smoke inhalation." she answered, petting Ollie's head.

"How did they know?" Will asked.

"I was seeing black spots." she answered.

Will sighed, but suddenly hugged her either way. "Thank you."

She smiled back at him.

"Are you okay Jessica?"

She almost smiled; there was only one person who called her Jessica with a voice that deep. She was surprised with how genuinely happy she was to see him in this situation though.

"I'm ok. Just going to be coughing for a bit." she answered, followed by a cough.

He stepped forward, and leaned down to bring his face beside her's.

"I managed to fix the Jeep." he whispered to her.

She smiled and looked at him in the face when he pulled back.

**_Thank you_**. she mouthed, then stood up and wrapped her arms around his torso. She felt his arms wrap around her, squeezing her tightly, and she sighed.

_Oh, he smells so good_. she thought, and smiled against his chest.

Why did he have to smell so good?

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

**Why do they always have to smell good guys? Whyyy? ;) I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you either in the next update of my other story, Remembering What?, or if the Terror Twins aren't your thang, in the next update! Have a good one!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here we are! Number fiiiive :D I hope you enjoy this one, it took me a while to finish but voila! Don't forget to review, and if there's something you want to see on this story, or something you'd like me to add, give it to me! I want to try and add things YOU guys want to see in here to! Anyways, enjoy and don't forget to review!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Jess's parents freaked out when they learned about the fire. Originally, her Mom scolded her for going back inside instead of running, but she knew she'd done what was right. Her step-Dad had told her she did a good job, and hugged her 'till she couldn't breathe. Then they offered for William and Annabelle to stay at their place while their house was being taken care of, which they graciously accepted. Will's military buddies were given the garage and blow up mattresses, which they accepted as well, so Jess put Darth Vader beside the Mack, along with her Mom's old 1990 Chevy Silverado, and helped empty the garage for them so they could put the mattresses in there. However, while Sideswipe and Ironhide accepted the offer to sleep there, Optimus declinced, saying he could sleep in his truck's sleeper cabin.

Her Dad, though, seemed very skeptical about Sideswipe. Seeing as Jess was seventeen, and Sideswipe was about twenty, she saw her step-Father's concern, but Sideswipe wasn't really.. her type. He was very lean, and not very bulked up. He seemed to loud, and rarely quiet.

So, Jess gave Annie her bed and room, and Will got the spare room, which left Jess with the couch, which she didn't mind all that much.

William was the one to call Sarah and explain the situation, and Sarah decided, since her trip was over in two days anyways, she'd stay, although it took a little persuasion on both Will's and Jess's part to keep her there.

Jess's parents offered to let her stay home for the week, but she declined on the basis that it wasn't her house that went up in flames, and finals were approaching rapidly, so she couldn't miss a lot of school.

Which is where she was stuck right now.

"Miss Robbins!" her english teacher said in an overly loud tone. "Are you listening to what I'm asking?" he asked in an angry tone.

"Yes sir. It's easily seen that the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth changed throughout the novel by Lady Macbeth's actions before her death. As the doctor as told, she was sleep walking, saying that she could never wash the blood off her hands, where as before she was the one encouraging Macbeth to kill King Duncan. It's obvious that all the death surrounding the Macbeths were taking it's toll on the Lady." she answered.

"And who was the third killer where Banquo was murdered?" he asked again, crossing his arms.

"It's unknown, but many speculate that it may have been Macbeth who went to make sure that the deed was completed thoroughly, though in the end, he was the reason that Banquo died and Fleance escaped." she answered again.

Her teacher stared at her for a second, then nodded. "I see you've done the readings. Very good."

She offered him a tight smile and a minute nod, and he turned away, to ask the questions to the next unsuspecting student.

Sam, who sat in front of her, turned and placed a floded piece of paper on her desk. She unfolded it, her eyes running over the words.

_**How's the breathing? You okay, you seem tired? Oh, and did your Dad get a new truck?**_

She picked up her pencil, and write her response;_** It's fine, and yeah I am friggin tired. Of this class and of this school. And no, why?**_

It took a second, but Sam turned around again and placed the same paper back down. _**Cuz I saw you driving a blue and red truck a few days ago.**_

_**Yeah, that was a friend's. He let me drive when we were towing Vader home**_. was her response.

Sam obviously read the note, but stopped and hid the piece of paper before the teacher saw it as he walked past them.

She didn't talk or hand notes to her for the rest of the period, and when the bell rang, Jess grabbed her books, pocketed her pen and left the room.

She slipped her stuff into her locker when Sam creeped up behind her.

"Friend?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah, he's staying over with the Lennoxes for a little while, and since I'm babysitting Annie, I'm interacting with him. Vader got shitted on by a porcipine, so he offered to let me drive as we towed him back." she explained.

"Is he hot?" Sam asked.

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Sam smiled widely. "He is, isn't he?"

"Your definiton of hot, or mine?" she said, smiling slightly.

"Yours, then mine." Sam smiled.

"Extremely, then somewhat." she smiled.

"Ooh, girl. You work that shit." Sam said, hitting her arm.

Jess laughed. "Sam, he's something like twenty six years old-"

"Ooh, college guy." Sam smiled.

"No, more like military comander guy." she laughed.

"Still.. older. That's hot." she winked, and Jess laughed.

Jess leaned down to grab her calculus binder, but Sam hit her back.

"Is that him?" she asked.

Jess stood up, holding the blue binder, and sure enough, Optimus was standing in the hallway, speaking to the principal, who pointed in her direction.

"That's him, isn't it? I thought you said he was hot?" Sam asked.

Jess laughed and looked at her friend. "I said in my opinion. Not your's. You like these.. lanky guys with very little muscle. I don't." she said, picking her pen up off shelf in her locker.

"Jessica?" she heard his voice ask, and she turned to look at him.

"Hi." she smiled. "What are you doing here?"

He placed a warm, large calloused hand on her arm. "Can we talk somewhere privatly please?" he asked.

She furrowed her brow, focused on the feeling of his hand for a second. Jesus, why?

"Uh.. sure. I'll be right back Sam." she said, and pulled Optimus away from Sam, down the hall, and out the back door.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Since when do you know where I go to school?" she asked.

He gave her a questioning look. "The only other high school even remotely close is an hour driveaway. Besides, your Mother wanted me to bring you home, she has an inquiry for you." he answered.

She nodded. "Um, okay. Just let me grab my things." she said, and he nodded.

He opened the door for her, and she smiled her thanks to him. He followed her back to her locker, and she heard a few of the girls whispering to each other about him. She opened her locker, pulling her bag and keys out.

"Goin' home Sam, I'll see you later." she said, closing the locker door.

"Okay, don't get an STD." Sam said, picking her book up.

"Don't aquire a deadly disease." Jess winked, and looked up at Optimus. "Ready?"

He nodded, and she walked down the hallway beside him.

"Is Annabelle ok?" she asked.

He chuckled a little, his shoulder shaking.

"What?" she asked.

"Your love for William's daughter. I find it amusing how you care so deeply for her without any sort or corelation to besides her living in the same town, and being your charge." he explained.

Jess shrugged. "Not that big of a deal; I've known her since she was born. I babysat her when she was in diapers, and I know with Will gone a lot it takes a toll on her and Sarah."

"Yes, however it is quite prominent that you show affection for her on a deeper scale." Optimus said as he stopped in front of his truck, which was taking up two parking spaces next to her Jeep. "And I see very little of that type of affection in the human race. But you, you seem to openly show your love for everybody in your close, immediate circle. Even with your friend back there, Samara."

She furrowed her brow as she looked up at him. "How'd you know-"

"She did not look much like a Samantha." Optimus winked, and she laughed.

"Well, don't let her hear you say that name. She hates it. She once willingly took a week's suspension for punching a guy in the face because she refused to apologize to him after he called her by her real name." she giggled as she remember how at ease the red head was with the consequences.

With a smile down at the petite girl, he motioned to the two vehicles. "Shall we go?" he asked.

"I think we shall." Jess nodded, opening her Jeep door, and starting the engine, although she didn't hear anything after Optimus turned his truck on and the rev of that engined drowned out practically every noise within a ten metre radius of them.

When he didn't move, she drove out first with him behind, and out of town. They passed the burnt-to-a-crisp house that used to be Annie's and Will's home, and entered the outskirts, where it was nothing but wheat fields, corn fields, and barley fields, with the occasional house, including Jess's, which she pulled into.

She bumped over beside the Mack, and watched Optimus back up to close the Jeep in between two tractor trailers. She hopped out, pulling her bag with her and up to the house, where she held the door open for Optimus as she got attacked by Ollie.

"Hi baby boy, yeah I know! I missed you too!" she said.

Optimus mumbled a thank you to her, and she walked off, placing her bag on the couch and plopping down in order to better pet Ollie.

"Jessica!" her Mom called.

"Here." she called.

Her Mom came in, alongside Harry, and stopped in front of her.

"Jessica, has Optimus told you?" she asked.

"No, what's going on?" Jessica asked, and Ollie jumped up on the couch to lay his head on her lap.

"Oh, well I think Will could explain it better." Harry said, and Erin nodded.

"I think you're right." Will said as he entered the living room from the backyard, and sat down beside her. "Jess, we need you to come with us."

"Where?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"We need you to come with us to our Military base." he explained. "I can't tell you exactly why right now, but you need to come. We've already cleared it with the White House, and you have access to everything you're legal to know about. We spoke to your principal, who agreed to let you take your final exams online if you end up staying too long." he finished.

"Whoa, exams aren't in weeks, they're in, like, four **months**. How long am I staying in order to do the exams online? Why would I even need to stay **that** long." she asked.

He sighed, and didn't answer her.

"You're telling me I have to drop my whole life to go to some military base for a reason that I can't even be told, with people I barely know?" she asked angrily, and saw Optimus, who stood with his buddies in the corner, tense.

"Jess, I know it's a big jump, but you have to do this. I'll be there, and so will my buddy Epps, you'll like him right away. And Ironhide and Optimus will be there too." he attempted to calm her down.

"Yeah, you'll all be working. I'm seventeen, I'm not even legal to enter the military, yet I have to go to your secret base? What crap is that?" she asked angrily.

"Jessica Lyra Robbins! Do not raise your voice at adults, and Annabelle is taking her nap. Quiet down." her Mother hissed.

"Why should I? I mean, if I have to go long enough to miss fucking exams then you're going to miss my voice anyways!" she yelled, then stood up and left the house, slamming the door behind herself.

She heard the front door open behind her, and her Mom yelled her name as she jumped into the Jeep, cutting the engine, and took off out of the driveway and down the road, towards town.

She ended up parked in Jubilee's Burger Joint, and exited the Jeep, heading inside. She let the door close behind her and took her spot at the last two person booth to the left, her back to the wall.

Her phone, which sat in the middle of the table, buzzed and a picture of her Mom's face hugging Harry popped up. She ignored it, turning her phone on silent.

"Hey Jess. What can I get you?" Grayson asked as he stopped next to her.

She gave him a tight smile. "Hey Gray. Just a hot chocolate please."

He nodded. "Alright. I'll be right back."

She smiled again, and looked down at her phone, this time being called by an unkown number. When the call ended, she saw four different text messages from Harry's phone, five from her Mom's and three missed calls from the home phone. She assumed the unknown number was Will.

Grasyon was back quickly and placed it down. Jess pulled a five dollar bill from the back of her case, and held it up for him. He shook his head.

"On the house. You look like you need something good to happen to ya." he smiled, then walked off.

She smiled, wrapping her hands around the ceramic cup, which warmed her hand immediately, and she raised it to her mouth to take a sip.

She stared at the booth seat in front of her; why did she have to go? What could possibly be so important that a seventeen year old Senior graduating in five months, training to be a long distace hauler had to abandon her school, dog, Jeep, and basically her whole life to go to some unknown Military base for a reason that she wasn't 'cleared' to know? If she wasn't allowed to know, why was she allowed to go? _That_ was the better question.

Her angry train of thought was stopped when a body slid into the booth in front of her, and she found herself staring that the person's chest. She jolted, her eyes snapping up to connect eyes with Optimus. Of course. They couldn't just leave her alone when she was angry; she had to be followed and stopped. She was **seventeen**, she could be stupid and hurt herself.

"Jessica-"

"Don't!" she snapped. "Do not try and talk me out of being pissed right now, let me bask in my anger." she said, her jaw clenching. "**This** didn't happen to you. You chose to enter the Military. I'm being forced to go with you, even though I can't be told and have restricted access."

He sighed as she lifted the Hot Chocolate to her mouth and took a sip.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Hot Chocolate. It's my angry drink." she answered, then furrowed her brow. "Why are _you_ here? I thought it would have been my parents or even Will. Not one of you guys." she asked.

He shrugged. "They attempted to come, but you are angry at **them**, not me. It seemed to be more on the logical side if you were spoken to by someone you were not angry at right now." he answered.

She snorted. "Doesn't matter. They want me to drop everything for some stupid thing. My school, my friends, my _dog_. My entire career depends on me graduating from that school." she answered.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She sighed. "About three months ago, I was brought out of class and met with a hauling company. They had me dirve them around a bit , and show them what I had. They offered me a job right out of highschool. They offered to pay for my ACZ licence, and said I could get it from the school related to them. They said I'd be hauling to places like California, Florida, Vegas, even over to Canada. Optimus, you can't begin to understand how badly I want that position, but it was on the promise that I graduated from my high school, because the company's connected **to my school**." she said, and when she blinked she realized that she had a tear rolling down her cheek slowly.

To her surprise, Optimus reached across the table and wiped it off with his thumb, and she bit her bottom lip to stop the sob that bubbled up in her chest.

"Look, the last thing I want is your sympathy, ok?" she asked. "I just.. I want to be in control of what I do with my life."

He sighed, but didn't respond. He sat with her in silence as she finished her Hot Chocolate, and looked out. Optimus's truck stood beside her Jeep, taking up about three parking spaces.

"How big is your truck, anyways? Mack isn't that massive. You own a beast." she commented.

He chuckled, his shoulders shook once, and she stared at the truck, his healights seemingly looking at her in an unwavering stare.

"What's his name?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Name?" he asked.

"Yeah. A name. What, you don't name your vehicles?" she asked.

He shook his head with a minute smile.

She pondered, looking over at the beast. "You could go with.. chief?" she asked.

He furrowed his brow, and she laughed. "Okay, not Chief. What about.. Hunter?"

He laughed again, and she smiled. "Okay. I guess not."

She seemed to ponder on it for a second, and unbeknownst to her, Optimus studied her.

Even angry, she had a slight smile on her face. Her cheekbones were fairly prominent, though she still had a slight amount of baby fat on her cheeks. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, almost as vibrant as the blue that his optics were, though not as Autobot-blue-ish, however she had what looked like gold colored specks surrounding her pupils that disappeared when her pupils dilated. Her hair was fairly long, going past the middle of her back and stopping around the middle of her bottom, and light brown in colour, although it was obvious that it wasn't dyed. He notice that a glint on the side of her nose, and took in the small piercing on her nostril, along with a minute piercing sitting on her septum. Her eyebrows seemed to be thin, but according to the whispers he heard by the human femmes on base they were considered perfect. She had thin shoulders, her physical stature pretty much the opposite of his own holoform's, and long nails that were painted a bright orange at that moment, but chipping away. He noticed the small black hair elastics that seemed to always be on her wrist.

She looked back over at him. "What about Captain?". He chuckled. Her brows furrowed. "What?"

"I find a great deal of irony in that, seeing as I am the Captain over my troops." he smiled.

She seemed to process that information, then laughed and tossed her head back. He smiled at her reaction, and took note of how perfect her teeth looked.

"Alright, there we go. Now he's got a name." she smiled.

For a second she kept smiling, then sighed. "I have to go, don't I? I have no choice?" she asked.

He sighed. "We do not want you to feel uncomfortable with anything." he said.

"That isn't what I asked." she said, raising an eyebrow.

He sighed. "Yes, you do."

She sighed, and looked down in her empty cup.

"Alright."

"Alright?" he asked.

"Might as well go. I've got to pack, don't I?" she asked.

He nodded, and she stood up. He watched her walk behind the counter, and over to an older woman. She said a few words, hugged the woman, then a younger boy, around her age, came out and they hugged too. She walked back to him, and nodded.

"Let's go." she shrugged. He stood up, making sure everything was good, then followed her out of the restaurant. She climbed into her Jeep, starting the engine up and he followed her down the road and back home.

Back home for the last time in a little while.

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this! Again, if there's something specific you want to see in here, give it to me! I'd love to involve all your ideas into this story! Don't forget to favourite and review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AND HERE EVERYBODY! CHAPTER 6! AHAHA I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY! Because I love you all, and WE ALL LOVE OPTIMUS SO YAAAAAY!**

**Don't forget, we have a Facebook page! I believe I'm going to start being active on there! As well, don't forget to check out my Sunstreaker/OC/Sideswipe story, Remembering What?, (which I updated today as well!) and don't forget to vote on the poll on my page! I need everybody to vote on that!**

**XD I hope you all enjoy this chapter, don't forget to review ya'll!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Jess sat in a plane for almost ten hours, her bags beside her as she sat beside Will. She'd packed up three luggage, stuffed her teddy bear in there, a few books and everything else she'd need. Optimus and his buddies had gotten in the other plane with their vehicles, so she was stuck on this big - massive more so - ship with Will, who had taken it upon himself to stretch his legs out and take a nap.

Her Mom had teared up when she had everything ready, and made her promise to video call often. She made her Dad promise to take care of Ollie and the Jeep, and he'd agreed, hugging her impossibly tight and telling her everything would be ok. That didn't exactly help her nerves at all, but she didn't let them see that.

Of course, Sam made her pinky promise to video call all the time and text her the second she landed. Sam cried, and as much as Jess didn't want to, she cried too. She cried even after Will helped her into the back seat of Ironhide's truck, and then she curled into a ball and attempted to fall asleep. Which is why she couldn't sleep during the plane ride.

Eventually, though, the plane landed. Will was awake, and offered to take her luggage, but she compromised and let him take only two.

"So, that is the barracks hangar, where you'll be sleeping. That hangar where Sideswipe is driving into is off limits, but the one beside the barracks hangar is the training and judging facility for the new recruits, which you're welcome too." he said. He pointed out a few more buildings, about three of which were off limits to her, but the rest were good for her to go into. One of them was the training hangar for the recruits that were already in the military. She had a feeling she wouldn't want to be in there anyways; too much testosterone running around in there for her liking.

"Captain Lennox!" a very professional voice said.

They looked over as a rather short man dressed in a suit and a pair of thin, frame-less glasses walked towards them, carrying a folder of papers.

"Captain Lennox! Is this Miss Robbins?" he asked.

"It is. Jess, this is Director Theodore Galloway, our National Security Advisor. Director Galloway, this is Jessica Robbins, our special... guest for a little while." Will introduced.

Theodore extended a hand, and Jess grabbed it to shake.

"Hello." she said monotonely.

He nodded in response. "I am sure that Captain Lennox has shown you around, and told you which bases you have permission to enter and which you don't. If you are to enter any of the buildings off limits to you without permission, there will be severe consequences, and once off this base, if you are to.." Theodore seemed to drone on for a quite a while, and all Jess could think was how she'd been here for less than ten minutes and already she was ready to go home and never come back. She regretted coming at all now.

"We've prepared a bedroom for you, where you'll be sleeping as well as doing your school work. It is private from the soldiers' barracks, so you won't have to sleep with the recruits. I trust Captain Lennox to show you the way so that you can settle in." the National Security Advisor finally finished, then walked off.

With a fairly confused look, Jess glanced at Will, who shook his head.

"Don't ask, and try to avoid him." he advised, and she nodded.

"I hope you don't mind, there's a fairly large window in your room." he said.

"No." she shook her head.

He could see the left over anger and a fair amount of sadness still left on her face, implanted on her eyes, so without another word he led her to the room she'd be staying in. The door opened like a standard door, with a round doorknob that locked from the inside. Three walls were painted a light beige color, and dark blue on the last one, with a queen sized bed sitting in the corner of the room, covered with a black and dark blue patterned blanket, two black pillows and one dark blue pillow. Like Will said, there was a fairly large window exactly opposite of her bed, though it was tinted, with an opening as well. There was a desk for her school stuff adjacent to the window, with a closet beside it. It wasn't exactly.. homey, but she figured once she was finished with it, it wouldn't be horrible.

"I arranged for one of the bo-ys to take you shopping next week, once you've settled in. That way you've got time to figure out what you want, and how to decorate. They'll have a credit card from us so you won't have to worry about cost. And I figured, since your old room was dark and light blue that you liked that color, so we got some stuff for you. The walls can be repainted if you want, but I thought you'd like it." he smiled.

She offered him a tight smile. "Thank you."

He placed the two luggage on her bed, and headed towards the door. "If you'd like, there's a cafeteria in hangar three. If you're hungry."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Oh, and the boys will park their cars in front of the window at night, normally. If you don't mind. It's just because the base they sleep in is the same base where they keep their vehicles, and it's under a lot of construction right now." he said.

She shook her head again. "It's fine."

"Alright. I'll let you settle in." he said, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

She walked over, pulling her phone out of her back pocket and tossing it onto the bed as she zipped open her luggage with very little interest. The first thing she pulled out was the light brown teddy bear her Father had purchased her when she was born. It had glassy eyes and a soft, black velvet nose, and light brown fur and that was it. Simple.

She tossed it over by the pillows, watching it land in between them, then pulled a few of her pants out. She walked over to the closet, opening the closet doors. There was shelves in there for pants, shorts, and most likely undergarments. There was also a small wooden shelf at the very bottom for shoes.

She managed to put all her clothes away, along with the few pairs of shoes she owned. She placed all her books away, as well as the binders from school and pencils. She texted Sam, saying they'd landed and she had settled in but got no response, which she expected. That left her with three empty luggage and only two options. She could sleep for a little bit, to catch up on jet lag. That would stop her from sleeping all too well tonight however. She could, though, head over to hangar three, where William had said there was a cafeteria. That would keep her awake until night time, but she'd be fairly lethargic until then.

She pulled a hair tie off of her wrist and flipped over at the waist to put her hair up into a pony tail, and shoved her feet into a pair of running shoes, heading out of her room. She plugged her earphones in, placing one in her ear and letting the other one hang down as she stuck her phone into her back pocket. She started walking over to hangar three when there was an air horn behind her.

She turned to see Optimus's truck driving up to her, and he rolled the window down.

"Jessica, where are you headed?" he asked.

"I was goin' to get food. Will said there was a cafeteria in hangar three." she explained.

"Would you be alright if I wished to accompany you?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Come on in." he said, leaning over and opening the passenger's side door.

She pulled herself up, settling into the seat. Optimus put the truck into first gear and started driving away.

"You're very proper." she noted.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"When you speak. You're very.. articulated. You don't use contractions and speak very properly." she explained.

"Does it bother you?" he asked.

"Not at all. Just a little different. Nobody I know besides you speaks like that. It's kind of.. refreshing, I guess." she said, leaning her head against the head rest.

She felt a chill role up her spine and shivered.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"No, just a chill." she waved off.

"A chill?" he asked.

"Yeah, like when you're being watched. That's all." she explained.

He nodded, but she noticed he played with the A/C a little. He pulled up to the hangar.

"Thanks Optimus."

"It was no bother. Jessica, after you finish eating, would you be able to come with me? Our Chief Medical Officer, Ratchet, would like to meet you." he asked.

She nodded, but not before sighing. "Alright, sure. I'll just go grab something quick and be right back." she said, hopping out and closing the door a little roughly.

She didn't mean to close it like that, so roughly, but she was just forced to leave her home - her entire life - so that she could live on a military base, sat on a plane for ten hours, was assigned a room that wasn't hers, and now she couldn't even go sit by herself at a table while she ate the first meal she'd eaten in over twenty four hours.

No, instead, she had to go meet another man with a codename, whom -again - she _didn't_ know, and bring something small to eat.

She entered the hangar, finding it to be simply a massive room with a buffet-type set up, except it was one massive line, with cooks standing behind it. There was also a table adjacent to the meal line with breakfast-like foods, including muffins.

She walked over, grabbing a fruit muffin and heading back out. Optimus sat in his truck, the door open for her. She crawled in, pulling a piece of muffin off the top and plopping it into her mouth. She closed the door, grabbing the buckle and putting it over her chest.

"I apologize for all the stress you have collected recently due to us." Optimus said as he began turning Captain around.

"He really likes you." she commented, hoping to leave the subject of _her_.

"What?" Optimus asked, confused.

Jess laughed. "Captain. He really likes you, he hasn't made any noise of disagreement to you yet. How long have you had him?" she asked.

"Oh, you refer to my truck?" he asked.

Jess nodded. "Well, we did decide on the name Captain, remember?" she asked.

"Ah yes, his name. I have had him for..." he trailed off for a second. "About three and a half, almost four years."

She let her eyebrows raise. "Oh wow, same time as me and Vader." she said.

"Your Jeep Rubicon?" Optimus asked.

"Yeah. Annie named him Darth Vader." she explained.

Optimus smiled at her lightly as they headed towards a hangar, if she was correct hangar four. When he pulled in, there was a load of troops, along with Will and some guys around, but there was a door that led to a seperate room.

"In there." he said. "I will enter behind you in a few minutes, I must consult with Captain Lennox for a few things first."

She nodded. "Who am I looking for? Ratchet?"

"Yes. He is the only older gentleman in there right now" Optimus nodded, stopping his truck.

With a nod, she opened the passenger's side door, hopping out and pulling a piece of her muffin of the top, plopping it in her mouth as she entered the room. It looked like a giant Medical Room or Bay, with multiple beds, and, well... a hospital.

"You must be Jessica."

She turned around to see him. He was fairly tall, and well built, with a somewhat full goatee with grey and white hairs sprinkled throughout the mainly black colored trim. She could only barely see how prominent his cheekbones were, thanks to the stubble that ran up the entire side of his face. She guessed he was probably in his late forties. Altogether, if she had been his age then he would probably be attractive.

"I must be. And you, I presume, are Ratchet." she said, shrugging.

Thankfully, he didn't extend a hand to her so they didn't have to shake each others' hands, and she plopped another piece of muffin into her mouth.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to run a preliminary scan on you and your physical state just as a baseline. But I'll only proceed with your permission." he said.

She huffed. "What are you going to be doing?"

He looked confused at her for a second. "What do you mean?"

She huffed, taking another bite rom her muffin and swallowing. "Will you be doing a pap test, mammogram, or something?"

He stared at her, seemingly confused for a second, then shook her head. "No, no. No pap tests, no mammograms."

She nodded. "Alright, sure."

He nodded, and patted the bed beside him. "Hop on up then."

She nodded. "Yes sir.", and pushed herself up to sit on the bed.

She watched him set something up, to which she didn't know what it was, and decided to instead focus on her muffin. He ran a few tests, including the normal knee-tap-reflex tests. He left the room for about five minutes to do something outside of the room, but came back in soon after, continuing on with his tests.

About thirty minutes later, with her finished muffin, he looked up at her. "Would you mind if I took some blood and administered some vaccines? We were given your immunization records, and I see there's a few that you missed."

She shrugged. "Sure."

He pulled on a pair of latex gloves, filling a brand new needle out and filling it. She watched as he made sure there were no air bubbles in all three needles, then administered them.

"You didn't flinch, fairly impressive." he smiled as he administered the last needle, placing a cotton swab on top and covered it with a band aid.

"Needles don't scare me too much." she shrugged.

"What does scare you?" he asked.

"Like, my fear or phobia, or just stuff that makes me a little uneasy?" she asked.

"First one, your phobia." he shrugged as he pulled the gloves off.

"Heights."

"Really?" he asked.

She nodded. "Extreme heights. I can't be over about fourteen feet in the air without hyperventilating and fainting." she explained.

"I would not have guessed that about you." he smiled.

She shrugged. "Not a lot of people do."

"What about hobbies?" he asked.

"Well, I used to practice driving a lot, and I often took Annabelle out a lot too."

"Annabelle, she's Captain William Lennox's child, correct?"

"Yes sir. Little Annie. But besides that, I draw." she shrugged.

"Oh, you're an artist?" he asked, seemingly intrigued.

"No, I don't consider myself one. I'm not very good at working with a canvas, but I can draw fairly well on paper, and I enjoy painting different designs on my nails." She answered.

"Do you draw often?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Often enough."

Suddenly, a large door opened and the custom painted, blue and red painted truck rolled in. It parked by the side of the door, a little ways away from it to avoid blocking the only large exit, and Optimus hopped out the driver's side of Captain.

"Evening Ratchet." he nodded.

"Optimus." Ratchet said with a nod, turning towards a screen.

Optimus looked at her. "How was everything?" he asked.

She nodded. "Good."

He nodded, and she saw him look over her as she picked at her empty muffin wrapping. Optimus walked around the bed, and she didn't hear them, though she knew they were whispering, and she pulled off as many crumbs as she could from the wrapper until Optimus placed his hand over hers. She looked up at him.

"Would you like me to bring you to the cafeteria? It will allow Ratchet to go over his data, and I know you must be hungry. I could hear your stomach grumbling from outside the Medical Bay." he offered with a smile.

With a light grin, she nodded. He offered her his hand, after which he pulled her off the bed so she was standing in front of him, and gestured to Captain, who still sat over by the door. She headed over, opening the door and hopping in. Optimus got in smoothly, and she noticed the way his leg muscles flexed as he got into the cabin. He sat down, and she let herself stare at his arm muscles instead as he flexed his grip on the steering wheel.

She looked away quickly before he could look her way and notice her stare, and she looked out the window. He backed Captain up out of the room, the door closing behind him, and out of the hangar, heading towards Hangar 3. He parked Captain just outside and the two of them got out, heading inside.

She picked out what she wanted to eat, piling it all on to a tray, and turning around. Optimus sat at a table in the back corner, his back to the wall as he sat there, waiting for her. She headed over, placing a fork and spoon on her tray, along with a bottle of Mountain Dew, and placed it down on the table, sitting in front of him.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Chicken noodle soup, salad, potatoes and I think that's broccoli and cheddar pie. I don't really know what _that thing _is, but it's colorful so I plan to eat it." she shrugged.

He chuckled, almost a laugh, as she picked up a spoon, sipping the broth.

"Are you not hungry?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Not nearly as hungry as you are, and I refueled myself when we first came back to base. When was the last time you ate?" he asked.

"The muffin I had during Ratchet's physical." she answered.

"Before that, Jessica. When was the last time you ate a meal?" he specified.

She blushed and looked down at her, placing her elbows on the table. "Why is it of any importance to you?" she asked. "I barely know you, why would it concern you?" she asked, looking at his face slightly.

He remained quiet, doing nothing but staring at her, and she realized he was probably shocked at the tone she spoke to him in. After all, he was the leader of whatever military group he was a part of; he probably never had to deal with a defiant tone of a teenage girl who didn't want to answer a question. She took a sip from her bottle.

She finished the soup and potatoes, starting on the salad while he stayed quiet. It took her only a few minutes to finish those, and move onto the colorful... whatever they were. They weren't too bad taste-wise, but she didn't know if she'd be picking them up again. The broccoli and cheddar pie was just as amazing as she expected it to be.

Once she finished eating everything, she sat back with a sigh and put everything on her tray. She made sure the table was clean, and stood up to throw away all the garbage. She left the tray on the top, with the rest of them, and sat back down in front of Optimus, taking a sip from the bottle.

"Was it fulfilling enough?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes. Thank you."

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**BAM! I hope you guys enjoyed this XD It gets a little better next chapter, but Jess is still fairly upset next chapter as well! Who can blame her though? Either way I hope you enjoyed!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright, so school is starting to get more stressful and difficult for me, so the updates are going to be slowing down considerably on both of my stories, because I can barely balance my time between the barn, school, being social and this. However, I'm not abandoning you guys! I wouldn't dream of it!**

**But here, Chapter 7! Hope you enjoy both this and your day!**

**Don't forget to review!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

If Jess had to use one word to describe her current predicament, it would probably be tedious. This was the most tedious, boring thing she'd ever done in her entire life; that included sitting through Mr Danby's four hour documentary on the "correct" way to raise a child. Thanks to that, she now knew which cupboards she should lock whenever she brought home the baby that she **didn't **nor was she **ever** going to plan on having.

Yet somehow, she expected it to be boring. She was a seventeen year old girl who was practically being forced to live on a military base for God knows how long, with nothing besides her schooling to distract her. Since she wasn't technically apart of the military or the classified black ops unit that William was a part of, she had full rights to sit in her room and do nothing. But that was boring. And Jess _detested_ being bored. But she found herself being bored often, and she found that she had been bored more often in the three months that she'd been here, than she was at home from the time she was seven. _Seven_.

She'd already drawn enough to fill an art museum, and she could only do so much schooling in one day before it was too much, so the rest of her days were spent sitting in the cafeteria or watching the physical tests they put the new recruits through. That was all she could do to entertain herself; a way to make the long day pass. It took forever for everyday of hers to finish. It made her wish she had put up more of a fight to stay home. Whatever the reason she had to come here, it obviously wasn't that big of a concern anymore, because if she did interact with someone, it was the people who served her food in the cafeteria.

The lack of stimulation made her feel like she wasn't living; only existing.

She had no real friends, nobody to relate to, nothing to do, nowhere to go, no choice in the decision, and basically no life.

She hated it here.

Someone waved their hand in front of her face, and she seemed to snap out of her trance, looking up to lock eyes with Chromia. She was the oldest out of the triplets that worked in William's classified unit. She was the middle child of the three, the youngest being Arcee and the oldest named Elita One. She'd met them, along with a few others on her second day here. Arcee was by far the happiest, always in a seemingly cheerful mood, but she gave off the feeling that if presented with the correct situation, she could go from happy to deadly fairly quick. Then, there was Chromia. She was.. definitely not what Jess was expecting on this base, yet totally what she was expecting, in a sense. The middle sibling seemed fairly calm, with a good head on her shoulders, but she near constantly walked around with two similar guns on her belt, and a trigger happy glint in her eye. Jess had seen many men purposely move away from being within a twenty meter radius of her. It was somewhat amusing. The final sibling, the oldest, was Elita. At least, that's what Jess assumed, but she'd over heard the other sisters call her Elita One sometimes. She was probably the most.. stand-offish of the three. Originally, Jess thought she was just being a rude woman, who loved and looked out for her sisters and closed comrades, and them alone. However, eventually Jess managed to get a good look at her -really. She came to the conclusion that she was a strong, powerful, fearless woman who was always making sure everybody in her close circle stayed safe, and preferred to stay out of everyone else's business. She also noticed that the woman **loved** to wear pink.

"Jessica?"

Jess blinked. "Sorry, what's wrong?"

Chromia chuckled, her left hand playing with the gun that was attached to the holster on her left leg.

"Nothing. But the training session ended thirty minutes ago, and you stayed, looking like you were thinking of how to build a bomb discreetly." Chromia joked.

Jess gave her a sheepish look. "Sorry, my mind likes to wander a lot."

She chuckled. "We've noticed. Don't worry about it. But Ratchet would like to see you in the Medical Bay as well."

"Oh, okay. Um, thank you." Jess smiled, thanking her as she stood up.

"Of course." Chromia smiled, then turned and left.

Jess leaned down and grabbed her bag, shouldering it and making sure everything was in there. She zipped her bag shut and walked away from the little sitting area that she had practically claimed as hers.

It took her about ten minutes to walk across the tarmac and through the base that held the medical bay. Ratchet was standing in there, like he was every time she went in.

"Ratchet?" Jess called quietly, as not to scare him.

He turned and nodded at her. "Afternoon Miss Robbins."

"You wanted to see me?" she asked, closing the door behind her.

"Ah yes, for your quarter yearly checkup." he explained.

She nodded, standing beside the bed.

"You may sit on the bed, Jess. You don't have to wait for my permission." he chuckled lightly.

Jess nodded, pushing herself up to sit on the bed.

"We're just going to do a normal physical." he explained.

Jess nodded, staying quiet. Ratchet took about twenty five minutes to go through his physical, staying quiet. Jess didn't mind though, she was used to silence on this base by now.

"On the sheet I had you fill out when you came here, you filled out the yes box saying you had at one point been sexually active, is that true?" he asked.

She blushed. "Yes, when I was fifteen. I haven't been since I was fifteen however."

He nodded. "When was the last time you had a mammogram and pap test?" he asked.

"About halfway through sixteen. So approximately a year." she answered.

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

Suddenly, William walked into the room. "Ratchet, have you seen Optimus? He left - Oh. Hey Jess! He left his truck in the back of this bay, but we need it in the Communications and JCS Link hangar for later."

Will sat beside Jess on the bed as Ratchet did something with the vile of blood that he had taken from Jess' arm.

"Ask Miss Robbins. I've been told she can drive a tractor trailer." he said distractedly.

"Ratchet, you know we can't do that." Will said.

Ratchet sighed, placing the vile down and pulling something out of his pocket. He stayed with his back to them for about two full minutes.

"Ratchet! What are yo-!"

"There. Everything that Jessica doesn't have clearance to see is hidden from her eyes in the JCS hangar." he cut him off, showing William his phone over his shoulder.

Will stood up, walked over and grabbed the phone as Ratchet went back to doing whatever with the vile of her blood. Will sighed.

"Jess, would you be able to drive Optimus' truck to hangar two?" he asked.

"If I remember correctly, Director Galloway-"

Will waved her off. "He isn't here for the week. Besides, everything you're restricted from seeing is hidden. You'll be fine."

Jess sighed to hide the excitement running through her veins; she hadn't gotten to drive anything in three months, almost four, much less a tractor trailer. And Optimus's truck was fairly fun to drive.

"His keys are in there? I won't hotwire his truck just to move it." she asked.

"Yeah, he keeps the keys in the sleeper cabin, under the left pillow." Ratchet answered from where he stood.

Jess nodded, and got off the bed. "Have a good rest of your afternoon, Ratchet.".

He grunted. "Oh, Miss Robbins, here. I need you to place his on the bench of his truck. Just leave it there, he'll know what it's for."

She grabbed the.. whatever it was. It was about the size of an iPad, but it didn't **look** like an iPad. More like a piece of black rubber and plastic. Whatever it was, she tucked it under her arm and nodded.

"Have a good rest of your day."

William held the door open for her and she smiled at him tightly. He pointed over to the corner of the base building, where the giant, tri colored behemoth sat, tucked quietly where - if he was a person - he looked like he would be sleeping.

She headed over, and she opened the sleeper's cabin. Optimus wasn't in there, so she walked over on her knees and felt under the left pillow until her hand graced over something cold and metal. She grabbed the set of keys, where there was only two keys on the key ring. She closed and locked the sleeper's cabin. She checked under all the tires, made sure the gas tank was locked and made sure everything else was the way it was supposed to be. Then she placed the black.. thing on the bench, and just as she did, it emitted a beeping sound. Jess furrowed her brow but waved it off; that was probably what it was meant to do. She picked the correct key, made sure Captain was in neutral and turned him on.

His engine snarled loudly as she cut it on, as if he was pissed at something and didn't want to move.

"Easy handsome." she mumbled. "We're not going too far, I promise."

The engine's snarl calmed and turned into a normal, constant growl. As she shifted into first gear, the engine gave off a loud, almost animal-like whine. Jess's eyes widened, and she immediately moved back to neutral, and turned the truck off.

"What the fuck?" she asked, jumping out. She unlatched the hood, and opened, pulling herself up and keeping herself stable and balanced by grabbing the side mirrors' bars. Nothing looked wrong, and everything she touched - just like her Dad taught her - was completely fine.

"Okay, what the actual hell?" Jess asked, jumping down and latching the hood back up.

She hopped back up into the truck, but kept the door open just in case. She turned Captain back on, and his engine growled again like normal, but nothing out of the ordinary. She nodded, petting the wheel.

"Good man, what the fuck was that Cap?" she asked rhetorically. She locked the door, and buckled herself up, then put him back in first gear. Everything went normal, and she pushed the gas pedal down slowly.

The engine revved as they moved from its spot and out of the base building. Just as they exited the building, Jess was glad Optimus had installed the silver sun visor on the outside of Captain's windshield.

"Geez." she groaned, flicking on the radio as some random song played through the speakers very quietly.

The engine revved again, almost in excitement and she smiled. Then she shook her head and put her monotone face back on.

"No, I've got to focus. You're a big ass truck and I can't afford to make a mistake because I let my emotions take control." she said.

She finally reached about fifteen miles per hour, and smirked at the feeling. She missed the feeling of driving **so** much.

She pulled into one of the bases she wasn't allowed into, where William was talking to Robert Epps, his close friends on base. The two of them both worked in the black ops unit together along with the others.

Robert waved at her with a smile. She waved back, although she knew he couldn't see past the damn near illegal tint job. She knew, at least, it was illegal for Optimus to have the tint job done that darkly on the windshield since windshields weren't legal to have any tint at all.

The inside of the base was much smaller, and different from the rest of the bases. It had a large, long silver catwalk that was approximately twenty feet in the air. There was a ladder-staircase cross leading up there, along with a collection of computers, cameras, miniature satellites, and more, all of which looked like it was meant as a broadcasting system on a secure line. There was different bays that were tattered with soldiers, Militia Jeeps, vehicles and other equipment that looked like it was used for training.

She noticed the multiple set of eyes on Captain as she drove under the catwalk, past the different bays and into the little corner.

She pulled to a stop, turning the wheel in a 360 and turned Captain around so that it would be easier for Optimus to exit the area with his beast. The engine gave one last rev as she put him into neutral before she cut the engine off. She tucked the keys under the velvet fabric of the head rest, where she always kept the Jeep's extra key, along with Mack's extra key. It was the safest place she could ever find.

She reached over and made sure the passenger side door was locked, then hopped out, slamming the door shut. She made sure the door was still unlocked, but left.

"Hey Jess!"

Just as Jess was about to leave the base, she looked behind her to see Sideswipe running up to her.

"Hi. What's wrong?" she asked.

He laughed, and she furrowed her brows.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, it's just your tendancy to think there's something wrong and your natural worry for everybody."

"You find that amusing?" she asked.

"Amusing enough. Not many people are like that. Anyways, I just wanted to know if you wanted to go for a ride. There's a track out back where the soldiers run the Jeeps to make sure everything works right, but some of us use it for fun sometimes." he offered. "Besides, you'd get to ride in a super sexy Corvette." he winked.

She laughed. "Um.."

"Aw, come on." he tried to persuade. "You're finished with school for the day and it looks like you've got nothing better to do."

She smiled slightly. "Alright, sure."

He smirked. "Come on then, let's go."

He led her back through the base and over to where a shiny, sleek, silver convertible Corvette sat, ready to go. Sideswipe opened the passenger side door for her, and she smiled her thanks to him. He shut the door behind her, and rounded the car to slip into the driver's side. He turned the car on, the key already in the ignition.

He rolled the windows down, the roof already being retracted, and hung one arm out the side as they drove out and Jess smiled as her hair whipped back behind her.

Sideswipe drove around the base and down what looked like a side road until they reached a race track.

"You any good at driving?" he asked.

"Good enough." she smirked. "Why?"

He smiled, his perfectly white teeth shining in the sun. "Because if you're good enough maybe you can drive a sexy car for the first time."

She laughed. "I've driven a Corvette Stingray before, Sideswipe."

His face dropped. "No."

She laughed again. "Yes. One of my neighbors was a sports car collector, but his license was suspended so I used to test drive them for him."

His face scrunched up. "Oh well. Bet it wasn't as hot as mine."

Jess laughed again, using her fingers to play with her hair. "Not sure, haven't seen him go yet."

Sideswipe smirked as he pulled his car to a stop in front of a bright white line that stood as the starting and ending line.

"You're about to."

She grinned widely; okay maybe today this place wasn't _horrible_.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Optimus hadn't meant to fall asleep; he had so much to do that he only meant to take a relaxing minute to himself to just bask in the silence that had filled the base for **once**. The next time he woke up, he was back in his spot in the JCS hangar, with a spark rate monitor on his bench and the fake set of keys that he had materialized a while ago - and forgot to disperse – behind his head rest. What caught his attention though, was the spark rate monitor. Ratchet only made him use that when he was around Jessica. They'd reached a definitive answer that it was her causing the Call.

The Prime Call, more often known as a Call, was an action found in Primes and Primes alone. It was the calling of the Prime's spark to its other "half". The bot who's spark, attitude, personality and habits meshed together perfectly with his own to create the perfect bond. A perfect pair. A way for the Prime to know who his Sparkmate was. The only problem this time, was that not only did it happen in the middle of the war, but it was towards a teenage **human** who knew nothing of his kind and by her laws, was not technically legal yet. As far as they knew, it could only happen towards Cybertronians. But Jessica was one hundred and ten percent full human. Every single test confirmed that.

Ratchet couldn't come up with an explanation for that, nor why the separation between the two was causing him pain. Like, literal pain. Since her arrival to the island, Jess had steered clear of socializing, which nobody blamed her for. They'd taken her from everything she knew because Optimus had a weird feeling in the pit of his tanks, told her nothing about what was going on, ripped her away from her chance to have the job of her dreams, and expected her to go along with it. She knew nobody here, couldn't relate to anyone, had nobody to really talk to, no way to release her emotions, especially since everybody was often working or out on patrols, and was constantly being kept in the dark. Optimus knew she wasn't stupid; she knew something was off with this base in particular. So in a way, he expected her to steer clear of everybody and remain mad for a long time. He didn't blame her either. But the last time he really sat near her was the day she arrived, while she ate her meal. He'd been so busy working that he forgot the whole point of her being here was for them to be around each other. And since they weren't around each other often enough, he had a ripping sensation in his chest. Almost like his chest plates were being sawed open and his Spark was being pried apart. It was painful. That had never happened before, to their knowledge. Ratchet had concluded that the only way to remedy it was for him to be around her often enough.

Which he wasn't so far.

Yet, he couldn't feel the pain right now. He wasn't sure if Ratchet had sedated him during his recharge or given him pain relievers, but the pain wasn't present in his chest cavity. His holoform materialized in the front seat as his engine turned on loudly, causing a few humans who were standing too close to their little sitting area to jump out of fear and scoot away. Oops. He hadn't meant to scare them.

Just as he went to pick the spark rate monitor up, a flash of bright green caught his eye. The little travelling bag that Jess was often seen with sat on the floor in front of the passenger's bench. He lifted it and looked. The zipper was closed except for a little zip at the bottom, where the end of a pencil had caught the zipper from the zip and stopped. He unzipped it and pushed the pencil in. Inside the bag, there was a small sketch book, an opened package of pencils, a very large bag of Smarties - the chocolate candy - and a small, old, light brown, leather bound book that look worn and well used.

With a furrowed brow, he reached in and pulled the leather book out; he knew this was trespassing on her privacy in a sense, but he couldn't help himself.

He opened the book to a random page in the middle, close to where the bookmark was, and read the first entry.

_May 28th._

_Dear Nobody,_

_I seriously hate this place. I haven't spoken to an actual human being in six days. __Six days_._ My days consist of the same boring shit; school, sitting in the cafeteria looking like an idiot, then sitting in the training room, looking like an idiot. I honestly don't know why they brought me here other than to mess up my life. I miss Ollie so much, and I haven't gotten to drive a vehicle in almost three months. Finals are in five weeks but I honestly couldn't give less of a shit whether I fail or pass anymore. Honestly, I'm hoping that if I fail they'll send me back home._

_I'm starting to wish I hadn't accepted Mrs Lennox's offer to babysit Annie for the week. Then I wouldn't have had to meet these people, and I'd still have my life._

_This place is a monotone, boring, lifeless __scary pl__ nightmare of a place with bitchy people who seem to enjoy ruining people's lives._

_I hate them._

_I want to go home_

It was her private journal. He could see the tear stains along the page in the book. As he flipped through the pages, not really looking at the entries and more looking at the emotions on the pages, he let the hurt she was going through really hit him.

Her life here was miserable; she was alone here.

He felt bad - horrible even.

Optimus ground his teeth together as he watched her entries go from her normal, happy self when she was back home up to the seemingly pissed, depressed attitude she was constantly in down here.

With a sigh and a sad feeling that filled his spark, Optimus slipped the book back in her bag, zipping it up and looking over at the Med Bay, where Ratchet's holoform was working.

_{:: Are you aware of her whereabouts?::}_

He saw Ratchet chuckle, his shoulder shaking.

_{::Sideswipe took her out back to the practice track. Mirage joined a few hours ago, as well as Jolt. They haven't returned yet so my best assumption would be out there.::}_

He sighed, sending his thanks over and drove out of the base and down to the track. At first he looked for her over by the start line, where the various young mechs were lined up competitively. But for some reason, his optics were pulled over to the where the small set of stands were.

Up at the top, a little bundle of grey and blue was snuggled together in a seat. He sent the holoform out of his alt mode and up the stairs. Jess sat, the hood of her grey hoodie propped up over head to block the setting sun from her eyes, and her legs drawn to her chest with her hands hiding in her sweater sleeves, pulled up to her chest. Her eyes were closed, her breathing fairly deep and steady; she was sleeping, probably from being so bored watching his young warriors race the same track millions of times from their testosterone fueled inability to lose to each other.

He leaned down, wrapping his arms around her and lifted her off of the chair. If she stayed there, her back and neck would start hurting by the morning.

She made a nonsensical mumble, but drew her hands to her chest in her sleep. He walked down the stairs, and since she was asleep, opened the passenger side door when his holoform was about ten feet away. He laid her down on the bench, covering her with the blanket he pulled from his sleeper cabin.

The holoform dissipated and reformed in the driver's seat. There was a hum, and Jess moved around uncomfortably.

"Easy Jessica, it's alright." he said in a low tone.

He reached his hand down to rub her shoulder. Instead, she reached up in her sleep and grabbed his hand, enveloping his one hand in both of hers and cuddled his large hand to her chest as if it was a teddy bear.

He chuckled lowly, reminiscing in the extremely good feeling he felt running through his nerve endings at the close contact between them.

As much as he felt horrible for being the reason why she came here and hated it, he was glad she was here.

She was his guilty pleasure, and this was the first time he was allowing himself to indulge.

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**And your heart just goes *Mush* XD So cute.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Jessica Robbins, please report to Hangar One. Jessica Robbins to Hangar One."

Jessica looked up from her school work, sitting on her chair with her body bent over the desk. She furrowed her brows - they had never called her over the PA or anything. She was never needed. The majority of people on this base didn't even know her or why she was here, since she wasn't a soldier. To be completely honest she didn't even know why she was here either. She wasn't that important here. So why was she being called now?

She dropped her pencil down onto her book, pushing her chair back and standing up. She shoved her feet into the running shoes that she kept by her door, tieing the laces up before leaving the room. She left the barracks hangar and stopped on the tarmac - which one was Hangar One?

Hangar Two, she knew, was the smallest building - her access was restricted to that one, but she knew it was the JCS and Communications Hangar. The cafeteria was the Hangar Three, the second smallest. Hangar Four was the barracks, something she was painfully aware of because a lot of her time was spent there. That meant Hangar One had to be the one where they had all the fighter jets, helicopters and planes; where all the ariel vehicles would return to and leave from, with the long runway in front of it. The other hangars she had one hundred percent **restricted** access to and she was _**never**_ going to have access to, but she knew that one of them was Hangar Five. It was more than ten times the size of Hangar Four, the barracks, which was extremely large because it had to house every single soldier on this island. Like, it had to be over forty feet tall; in length and ten times that size in width, it was so large that Jess couldn't even guess it's size or what it was for, she just knew it was where the "special" military people slept. It made no sense to her, but whatever.

The crappy part about Hangar One, however? It was the farthest from the barracks. Jess sighed at the length of her walk, but when she heard her name being called over the PA again, calling her to Hangar One again, she started the walk. It took her about fifteen or twenty minutes before she reached the litte side door she was allowed to go through, and stopped. It was always so busy in there, with soliders walking here and there, to and fro.

She stood there, looking like an ignorant five year old who was unsure why her Mom and Dad wanted her to watch whatever was about to go down.

"Jess!"

She looked over in that direction to see Will looking over at her. Just as she started walking over, Robert Epps rolled up behind him with a large wooden box with holes drilled into them, on a wheelie thing. William smirked at her, then leaned down and opened the box, grabbing something in his hand that looked like a nylon rope. She furrowed her brow in confusion. What?

Ollie trotted out of the box, a passing soldier catching his attention as his tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth, and Jess covered her mouth with her hands as she choked on a sob. With a smile, Will pulled on the leash to catch his attention, then pointed the black and white Great Dane's head over to her, his floppy ears perking up and eyes darting around until they landed on his owner. Then, he barked excitedly three times.

William said something to the dog before letting his leash go, and the large dog ran over to her full speed. Jess collapsed onto her knees, feeling tears roll out of her eyes and down her cheeks as she opened her arms and he landed in them, yipping and whining happily.

He tried to lick her face and whined, and Jess wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her tears fall onto his coat instead as she let herself sob aloud. She tightened her hands into fists as she took a smell of him. He smelt like home.

Finally, she stood up to see William walking over to her. She jumped up from the ground and over to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. He chuckled, hugging her back.

"Don't thank me kid, thank Optimus. He's the one who suggested we bring the dog here. Said it might help you adjust better. Even if I had advised against it, we're pretty sure he would've gone and gotten Ollie himself. He knows you're having a tough time." he told her.

"Where is he?" she choked out, pointlessly wiping the tears off her face.

William extended an arm, pointing his finger. Sure enough, the extremely tall, dark haired man stood across the base, listening to Ironhide and Ratchet speak to him. He had his large forearms crossed in front of his chest, the skin tattered with the various tattoos he had adorned there. He wore a simple red long sleeve rolled up to his elbows and a pair of what looked like a well used pair of jeans, accompanied by large work boots.

As the tears started streaming down her face rapidly, she pushed her legs into a run, hearing Ollie behind her. She noticed Ratchet noticing her and grinned. Obviously - out of confusion - Optimus turned around to see what caught Ratchet's attention just in time for her slam into his chest, wrapping her arms around him as she sobbed into his shirt.

"Thank you." she sobbed, tightening her hold on him and readjusting her grip on the back of his shirt.

Behind her, Ollie barked. He seemed to like Optimus as long as Jess wasn't around. Then he hated him - the man took Jess's attention and the three year old obviously hated not being the center of Jess's world.

She felt two large, extremely well muscled arms wrap themselves around her body and squeezed her tightly in retaliation.

"Anything to make your trip as pleasant an experience as possible." he said. "As long as it makes you happy."

She sobbed into his shirt again, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. She felt a large hand rub her back, and his arms tightened around her.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

If there was one thing Jess hated more than ever now, it was airplanes. Not because they have the chance to crash or anything. No, she hated them because of how many times she'd been on them. The only real difference this time was it was with Optimus.

William had suggested - since Jess had officially finished her exams and graduated from high school - that someone take Jessica out and help her choose some room decorations along with stuff for Ollie. He came with a large bag of dog food, but not enough to last him more than a month. At first, she thought she'd be going with Ironhide, since he had a large truck and bed for all the stuff. That was until she walked into Hangar One and Ironhide was nowhere to be seen. Ollie had stayed by her side from practically the minute she walked back to the barracks, and when he wasn't right beside her, he was within twenty meters of her, and always seemed to be able to see her. He also seemed to have formed a mutual disliking to the medica officer, Ratchet. The doctor wasn't afraid to show his dislike towards the dog to. That was wrong, they didn't **dislike** each other. However, they didn't seem to get along. But Ironhide? Ollie took this natural _love_ towards Ironhide. Everytime they saw the large, barrel chested man, the Great Dane would bark loudly and bound over once he got close enough to them. The large man seemed to enjoy being around the dog as well, and by now he even found the spots on Ollie to scratch that would get a good reaction.

Will was in the building, along side the Director Galloway and his buddy Robert. Robert tapped the older man's shoulder when he saw her. William smiled as she got closer.

"What, no Ollie?" he asked.

She smiled. "Figured he wasn't allowed, plus he wouldn't want to. I ran into Sideswipe this morning during yoga, and asked him if he could watch Ollie while I was gone, and he swung by earlier and picked up the pups." she explained.

"Sideswipe likes dogs?" Robert asked.

"You do yoga?" Will asked.

She smiled again, amused. "I do, have been for a while, but nothing crazy. Normally in the mornings, behind my room where the guys park their special cars. And apparently he does." she shrugged.

"Hmm." Robert hummed, playing with his eyebrows.

"Miss Robbins. I came here to remind you before you go back into non-militia civilization , that-"

"I have no right to speak of my experience here, nor am I to say anything to anybody of my location. If I speak to anybody about my exerperience here I will be charged of treason. With respect, Director Galloway, I'm already fully aware of this with no intentions to go against your rules." she interuppted, offering him a tight smile.

The director scowled, but nodded. "Good.", then turned and left.

They watched his back until he turned the corner and disappeared.

"Don't mind him; he's always like that. Ready?" Will asked.

"I would be if I know who I was going with." she answered.

Will chuckled. "You're going with - oh, there he is right now."

Jess turned her head in the direction Will was looking to see a red and blue Peterbilt slowing in speed as it approached them.

"S'that good with you? He offered his truck up for the space." Will verified.

She shrugged. "Yeah, it's fine."

He nodded as the truck pulled to a stop and the large driver got out, the sleeves of his unbuttoned flannel rolled to his elbows, a bright white tank top underneath exposed. He wore a pair of jeans, like normal, that covered his work boots, his pants being held up by a black belt with a unique looking belt buckle. SHe almost smile; they're outfits matched today. His eyes looked squintier than normal, and his hair was slightly desheviled.

"Hey boss man." Robert smiled at him.

Optimus nodded. "Greetings."

"Optimus, are you sure you wouldn't rather stay here and sleep? You look really tired." She offered.

He shook his head. "It is more than alright, I will accompany you, Jess. It is of no trouble."

She gave him a tight, thankful smile.

"She's right, Boss Man. We can send her with Ironhide instead." Robert offered.

"See? Robert agrees with me."

The dark coloured man laughed. " You don't have to call me by my first name, Jess. No one here does. Stick with Epps instead." He laughed.

She furrowed her brow. "Isn't that your last name?"

He nodded. "It is."

She shrugged. "Okay, either way. Optimus, you should stay here and sleep, you look really tired."

The tall man shook his head. "Do not worry, Jessica-"

"Seriously, Optimus, go get some sleep, you need it."

"Jessica. I am more than alright." He answered.

She sighed, obviously frustrated. "Fine. But if you fall asleep at the wheel, and I die, I will haunt your spirit." She threatened.

He smiled, lifting a hand to place it on her shoulder. "I promise you that will not happen."

She nodded. "Good. When do we leave?"

He looked back at his truck. "Major Lennox?"

Will shrugged. "Now. The planes ready for you two whenever you go."

Optimus nodded. "Thank you, Major Lennox."

The man nodded. "Enjoy your day." With that, he turned and left.

Optimus placed his hand on the small of her back lightly. "Are you ready?"

She nodded with a smile. "Whenever you are."

He chuckled again, the turned and the two of them made it to his truck, with him climbing into the driver's seat as she situated herself on the bench.

He drove into the somewhat large plane, parking and climbing out as the hatch closed. She heard multiple clicks around the truck as she figured he was locking Captain into place so that he didn't roll backwards. He climbed back in as she felt the plane starting to roll forward.

She huffed, putting her feet up on the bench and letting her head rest against the door. Uncomfortable with her position, she turned over.

She flipped over a couple more times, extremely uncomfortable, before Optimus touched her ankle.

"Are you alright?" He inquired.

She grumbled. "Your truck may be a beast, but he's the most uncomfortable bed ever." She groaned.

He laughed, apparently amused by her pain, before she gave a frustrated cry.

"Fine, you jerk!"

She pushed herself further down the bench, letting her head rest in the bench as her feet pressed into Optimus's legs.

With a rather loud chuckle that almost qualified as a laugh, Optimus picked up both of her ankles using only one of his hands, and let them rest on his lap.

"Thank you." She smiled sheepishly.

He chuckled again, and she felt the clankly wheels of the plane leave the ground as the plane reached a fast enough speed to lift off ground. She slipped her hands under her head with a sigh, turning onto her right side as she huffed and closed her eyes.

The last thing she felt before she fell into her nap, was the feeling of Optimus's hands running up and down her ankles and calves.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

After a three hour flight and a one hour clearance check for Optimus, Jess decided that she would forever hate flying and airports.

They finally did manage to get in his truck and onto the road. Without even telling him where she wanted to go, the first place he brought her to was the pet store. She laughed loudy as he parked Captain, using two parking spaces.

"Am I really that predictable?" she asked.

He smiled. "Not to everybody, but I know that animal is a top priority for you."

She smiled minutely, hopping out of Captian with his owner following. They walked over together and she held the door open for him, which had him laughing.

"Is it not meant to be the other way around?" he asked with a smile as the she followed him through the doors.

"Obviously not always." she smiled, looking up at him with a wink.

He laughed, causing her to smile a little wider. She looked over, away from him, then gasped loudly before leaving Optimus's side and over to where there was a pen filled with rabbits.

Optimus followed her as she left the rabbits and towards the multiple different dog food brands. She seemed to have a habit where, when studying something, she picked off the nail polish that adorned her fingernails. That explained why the orange nail polish she had on her nails were so badly chipped.

"Do you often paint your nails?" he asked.

"Mhm." she hummed with a nod. "Whenever I can. I have a tendancy to pick the pain off so I have to keep them painted otherwise I'd probably ruin my nails."

He nodded silently, going back to studying her. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though her bangs still hung down in her face. The white top she was wearing - what humans refer to as as "crop top", with an unbuttoned, blue and red, plaid patterned flannel shirt over top of her shoulders - allowed him to see, for the first time, the belly button piercing she had; the denim shorts she adorned showed off the tattoo on her thigh in a similar fashion. Her stomach wasn't so much **flat** as it was muscled, probably from all of those morning yoga sessions she did with them in their alt modes. Sideswipe seemed to love her morning yoga, especially when she spoke to them as if they would respond. He also seemed to take to a new habit of teasing Optimus about whatever she did or said during her yoga sessions. For her size, she was a slender, slightly muscled build. She also had a tattoo of some kind of cartoon on her thigh, which she often showed off when out in public.

"Is there a reason why I'm being studied?" she asked with a smirk, glancing up at him out of the corner of her eye as she crouched to look a different bag.

"There's a reason for everything that happens." he answered.

She laughed as she stood up. "I supposed you're right."

He smiled; he adored her laugh.

"May I inquire as to what that tattoo is?" he asked.

She smiled. "The tattoo on my thigh? It's the Legend of Zelda."

"The _what_?" he asked.

She giggled again, turning to look up at him. "The Legend of _Zelda_. It's a video game series. It was created by two Japanese video game designers, but it was published and developed by Nintendo. I got a tattoo of it because it was a big part of my life. When my parents were going through their divorce, my Mom became very distant. She was always angry and I was young so I didn't want to get in her way. Plus my Dad was damn near constantly at his stupid military base. I didn't feel like I had anybody who would listen, but then I had the game, it was always there for me whenever I needed it. It may sound silly, since it's just a game, but it's true." she shrugged.

He furrowed his brow. "Is that part of the reason why you were so against coming to our military base? Your father abandonned your mother and yourself to work at one?" he asked.

She pressed her tongue into her cheek angrily, staying silent for a second. She huffed. "He could've come home. He had over eight months worth of leave saved up, and I **begged** him to come home, even just for a month. But he stayed at his _stupid_ base when I needed him most because he didn't think coming home during the divorce was worth it. He didn't deem being there for his flesh and blood daughter worthy enough to come home. So yes, he's _part_ of the reason why I didn't want to go." she answered.

He nodded in understanding, but then noticed her wide grin. "What?"

"I told you about my tattoo, so you have to tell me what.." she reached out, grabbing his largely muscled forearm by his wrist, then pointed at one his tattoos "-this tattoo means."

He chuckled. "It means _'the duty to protect and fight for other's freedom'_" he responded, leaving out the beginning part. It was part of his vow. _"I, as Prime, accept and take on the duty to protect and fight for other sentient beings' freedom, whatever the cost."_. Of course, he couldn't tell her that though.

She nodded. "That makes sense."

"How so?" he asked.

"You are a **military** captain, right?" she teased, then sighed. "How tall are you anyways?"

He went through his data banks quickly, looking for what Ratchet told him.

"Six foot, six inches." He didn't tell her about the other twenty four feet that his real body was.

She whistled lowly. "Lucky ass."

He chuckled. "Not always."

She nodded, looking at a dog bone. "What about home? When was the last time **you** went home?" she asked.

"Home?"

"Uh.. yeah. Home." she nodded, looking a a different dog food bag.

He stayed quiet for a minute and a half. "A long, long time. Years."

"Geez. Does that not piss your wife off?" she asked.

"Wife?" he asked, surprised.

She turned around to stare at him as if he just said something surprising, her mouth agape. "Yeah. Your wife. The woman you _married_. The woman who gave you that wedding band." she asked, pointing to the ring he had attached to a silver chain that he hid under his shirt, but had sneaked out.

It was a simple, gold colored band. To a human, it looked exactly like a wedding ring; to him, it was a part of his title. Sentinel Prime gave it to him just after Optimus took over. It was nothing more than a metaphorical, gold colored metal circle that had been engraved on him somewhere when he was made Prime, but it held a lot of meaning. He did **not** think it would be represented on his holoform, and he hadn't really noticed it until now.

"It's not a wedding band. It was a ring given to me by my mentor." He explained

She nodded, feeling an odd, pleasent feeling fill her stomach at the thought of him not being married. "Oh, thought it was your wife and the ring was too small for you."

He shook his head. "No. I'm in the middle of leading a war, I don't have time for.. family."

She laughed. "Optimus, if everybody lived by that rule, the human race would die off. There's always **war** It's always somewhere." She answered, picking up a dog toy that had been tossed carelessly on the bottom rack.

"Then if there is always war, how, pray tell, would I _find _a family?" He asked, expecting her to not know how to react.

She froze, looking up at him. She seemed to search for her answer, her brows furrowing. "I guess you just have to find that one person who makes you feel like there isn't a war." She shrugged.

He watched as she continued down the aisle, looking through the various bags of dog food. Unconsciously, she lifted a hand to tuck the loose strands of hair from her bangs behind her ears, before lifted her finger to play with the septum piercing that glinted in the light.

She was beautiful; he wasn't sure if she knew **exactly** how beautiful she was. He had never seen another femme as gorgeous as her, even back home. He definitely wasn't the richest bit in Iacon - not even close - but he had enough wealth to see quite beautiful femmes daily.

Jessica, however, was different. Not only was she gorgeous outside - with her bright blue eyes that seemed fake, her slender and fit build, her hair, and even the tattoos she had adorned on her skin, he found beautiful - but even the inside of her was gorgeous. She was the nicest human he knew on this planet, from the way she was always thanking people and apologizing for the slightest of things she did incorrectly to the way she was always - _always_ \- worried about everybody else and wanting what was best for them, even if it meant she didn't get something. Like today when she insisted he catch up on lost recharge. He had been extremely tired, and wanting to go back to recharge, but touching her always seemed to wake him up. And if staying awake during a time of minor exhaustion meant he could spend time being close to her, then so be it. He was willing to do damn near anything for her. And yet she didn't even know it.

She picked up another bag of dog food, studying it before she left the aisle. He furrowed his brow, about to follow her before she came back around with a cart.

"Okay, come on. Grow some lady balls, you've got muscles." She attempted to reassure herself, crouching down and slipping her hands under the biggest bag they had.

"Oh god." She groaned as she started getting up, plopping the one large bag into the cart before starting to grab another one.

He huffed out a chuckle, then walked over and grabbed her arms. She looked up at him as crouched down beside her, lifting the bag up effortlessly and placing it in the cart.

She smiled, narrowing her eyes playfully. "Show off."

He huffed out another chuckle as she turned the cart around and walked down another aisle. Optimus smiled, watching her push the cart with effort, before coming up behind her. He placed his hands beside hers on the handle.

"I'll take it from here if you wish."

She smiled up at him, taking in his face. He had strong, prominent cheekbones that led into his strong nose, and up to his large eyebrows. His eyes were a kind of blue that made them seem like exaggerated contacts, or that Crest toothpaste that her Dad used. His hair wasn't super long, but it wasn't shaved like Ironhide's was. It was the perfect length to pull on while his lips were attached to-

She blinked, then ducked under his firm, muscled arms with a smile.

"Thank you." she smiled again, then they continued down the aisle.

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**_Voila! Hope you enjoyed! Please don't forget to review_**


	9. Chapter 9

**I** **wanted to get this one out to you guys faster just because there might be another extensive wait coming up and I don't want you guys to have to wait forever. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this one, thank you everybody for sticking with me though this! This semester is really tough for me, but hopefully next one is going to be much calmer. I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter, I worked hard on it. It's mostly just really cute interactions between Jess and Optimus mainly, but she's ever so slightly starting to make more friends. And for those wondering, I'm doing my best _not_ to introduce Jess to real Optimus yet. Remember, she's only a civilian, so the government isn't necessarily going to want her know about any sensitive information just in case.**

**Enjoy and please review!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Why did they even start putting Starbucks' in book stores to begin with? What was the point? Like, ooh look. I can read my new book and enjoy this vanilla-whipped-double-chocolate-espresso-non-mixed-latte-piece-of-crap-super-hot-mocha frozen drink, but only after the people behind the bar pronounce the simplest of names like mine wrong? Yeah, cool. You could've walked down the road for about five minutes and gone to a better coffee shop, gotten real coffee for a cheaper price and done it there. At least there you'd have a cute little tune in the background and a cute scenery with a cozy spot in the corner on a comfortable chair, instead of a stool that makes your butt go numb. But nowadays everybody was just too lazy. Five minutes was **so** _far_. You could just get a shittier, more expensive cup of crap-coffee and save yourself the **five minutes** of walking. Stupid.

"Jessica?"

She looked over to where Optimus stood beside her, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Are you even going to be able to read all of those?" he chuckled, looking at the collection of novels in her arms, each with over four hundred pages.

She narrowed her eyes at him playfully. "Yes, **Optimus**. I will."

"Why do you have so many?" he asked confusedly, his eyes filled with a confused, curious innocence she had never seen on him before.

"I love reading." she shrugged.

"Why?" he asked again.

"Aw, honey. Are you not a reader?" she teased. He narrowed his eyes at her playfully, and she laughed. "They're knowledge, Optimus. And knowledge is power. If I can't beat you physically, I'd still like to be able to whip a couple of facts out of my brain and shove 'em in your face." she said with a wink, before turning around and heading out of the aisle.

She heard heavy scuffs against the carpet behind her and saw the massive shadow from the man behind her follow down the aisle and to the search computer. She placed her stack down, before her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

"Um... okay, Corvette." she mumbled, typing that word in. A multitude of books popped up as _'available'_ on the subject.

"What are you looking for _now_?" he asked, running his index finger over the spine of her tower of books she already planned on getting.

"Corvette cars." she answered, reading a summary of one of the books available before clicking out and searching through the list.

"What for?"

"Because Sideswipe has one. I'd like to be able to throw a few facts about his car in his face when he gets all arrogant and cocky about how great his car is. He beat one of the other guys there, he called him 'Raj', the other day when he was racing. I already have a Ferrari book in my babies, but I gotta get one on Corvettes. See if I can figure out why he and his little Corvette beat the Ferrari. He was all proud of himself too, so I'm gonna bring his ego down a couple notches." she explained, smirking up at Optimus.

Optimus let out a genuine laugh, his eyes twinkling as she went back to going through the different books available before finding the perfect one.

"Aha!" she snapped her fingers, memorizing the aisle it was before clearing the search and heading that way. "Come, my faithful Optimus!" she called behind her excitedly, grabbing her tower of books and balancing them in front of her. She heard him chuckle behind her.

"_My_ faithful Optimus?" he asked.

"For today anyways. You're my protection dog. You and your behemoth of a truck are my barricades from danger." she said, throwing a smile over her shoulder.

He laughed again, obviously picking up her giddy feeling at how much fun she was having today. She went down the aisle, finally seeing the book she was looking for and slipping it off the shelf, adding it to the stock pile.

"Is that it?" Optimus asked, right behind her.

She tilted her head all the way back so that she was looking at him upside down, and smiled widely.

"Yes, guard dog. That's it." she nodded, then tried to blow the hair out of her eyes. "Okay, let's go big man. Captain's waiting for us."

She made her way out of the aisle and over to the cash register. The clerk behind the cash seemed annoyed at the fact that he had to do something. But eventually, Jess grabbed four bags of heavy books off the counter with a smile, not letting anything dampen her mood. She hadn't been this happy in _months_. She felt a hand rub up against hers, and looked over to see a massively muscled forearm grabbing two bags from her little hands.

"You don't have to Optimus, I'm a big girl." she said.

He smiled down at her, then picked up the first two bags, before grabbing the other two from her.

"How about you drive us back to the airport? Assuming you have nothing else you want to do?" he asked.

Her face lit up. "I get to drive Captain again?"

He chuckled and nodded. "I will go pick you up some food from that restaurant over there that way you are not hungry. Keys are in my right pocket, warm him up and I will be there in five minutes."

With an excited gasp, she reached in to his right jean pocket and pulling out a ring of keys, then turned and ran down the sidewalk and around the corner of the building. She ran up to the truck, then stopped in her tracks about five feet away from the truck's grill. A little ways away from Captain, about five or six parking spaces, a police officer was parked.

"Uh oh. What'd you do, Cap? You get in trouble?" she teased, walking to the driver's side door and opening the door.

She got situated inside, rolling the window down halfway, closing the door and squealing as she turned the engine on and it snarled as it woke up.

"Excuse me? Ma'am?"

She looked out the halfway opened window; a police officer, presumably the one who owned that car, stood beside the truck. The doors locked suddenly, and she furrowed her brow confusedly.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Can you please step out of the vehicle?" he asked.

She tensed. "Please tell me what I'm being questioned or charged for, then I will." she answered.

Something heavy filled her stomach, and something curled up her spine sharply.

"Please, get out of the truck." he growled lowly.

She furrowed her brow again, analysing him just in case. He wore traditional police man's uniform, minus a hat that showed off his dark brown hair. He had dark brown eyes that seemed to have a tint of color. Was that orange or red? Red, maybe. He was built tall and fairly muscular, but she couldn't see that many of his muscles, due to them hiding behind the uniform.

"I'm sorry sir, but if you can not tell me why I'm being pulled out of my vehicle first then I will not be exiting the vehicle." she answered.

He seemed to.. snarl at her, and she rolled her window up uncomfortably. Without buckling up, she pushed the truck into first gear and left the parking space, partially worried. Who the hell was that guy? What had she done to warrant being taken out of the vehicle?

She pulled into the little restaurant where Optimus had said he would be, strapping the buckle over her chest finally.

The door opened and she jumped, partially scared at who it was until she saw Optimus place the bags on the floor of his truck. Hadn't the doors been locked?

"I was not really sure what to get you, so- what is wrong?" he cut himself off with a question.

She sighed. "Um.. nothing. I think."

He closed the door behind himself. "What was it?" he repeated.

"Um.. there was a cop car parked beside Captain when I got there. When I was about to pull off, the cop officer told me to get out. When he didn't tell me why he wanted me to get out, I told him I wouldn't leave the truck. He.."

"He what?" Optimus asked in a deep voice, suddenly tense.

"Nothing. I thought I heard him growl, but it was just my ears being stupid. I left though." she waved off.

He nodded. "Alright. Let us go."

He didn't seem comfortable anymore, or even relaxed; his muscles were stiff and his back straighter than she had ever seen.

She nodded. "Yeah. And thanks for getting me food." she smiled tightly, starting to back Captain up and out of the parking lot. "It's been a while since I've eaten anything but military food. You guys have no junk food **whatsoever**. I don't know how you live! I don't know how I've lived this long on that.. healthiness."

He seemed to untense a little as he huffed out a chuckle from his nose.

Captain's engine groaned again.

"Oh, I'm sorry big buddy. I know you're tired, you've been stopping and going nonstop. Don't worry, we're going home and you'll get to take a super long nap." she promised, placing a kiss on the tips of her fingers before placing them on the wheel. "Maybe the base mechanic will wash you out on the tar mac too, God knows you need it. It's not like your _owner_ washes you." she teased aloud.

She noticed Optimus look over at her slowly, his eyes narrowing and she did her best to keep the smile in.

"Would you be willing to repeat that, Miss Robbins?" Optimus asked slowly.

"I would be willing, yes. If some one asked me to, anyways." she teased.

"Could you?"

"I **could**, yes. I'm very capable of speaking." she pressed on, this time letting her smile shine through and she laughed loudly. "You should be more _specific_ with the way you speak, Captain Optimus." she teased, laughing again as she pulled up to a red light.

Optimus laughed as the engine rumbled while the light turned green.

They rode in silence until they reached the airport, and Optimus got out of his truck. He spoke to one of the men in front of the tar mac, who nodded, pointing to the C-17 they had flown in on. Optimus nodded, his large, broad frame dwarfing the man's, before turning around and walking towards the driver's side.

Inferring that he was going to drive, she slid over onto the bench as he opened the door. He crawled into the driver's side, driving up the hatch and the men on the tar mac clicked Captain into place. Jess groaned.

"Oh man, this is going to be another boring flight." she huffed.

Optimus laughed. "You could always eat your food, or read your library of books you recently purchased." he advised.

She narrowed her eyes. "Be careful, sir. I purchased a book on Peterbilt trucks. If you don't watch it, I'll hijack something in Captain. Or find a way to steal him discreetly." she said sheepishly, petting the dashboard with her fingers.

Then she gasped. "Oh god, you were right. I have to repaint my nails, these look awful. Maybe I'll steal your custom paint idea. That is, if I could see it under all the layers of dirt on your poor baby." she smirked.

He narrowed his eyes for the millionth time today. "May I inquire as to what is with you and your seemingly endless, **playful** mood today?"

She laughed. "I'm enjoying my day, _Optimus_. And **you **are much fun to tease."

He chuckled. "I am glad I can bring you apparent joy in your day."

She smiled smally at him as the hatch closed behind them, then moved forward and wrapped her arms around his torso. He seemed surprised at first.

"Thank you for coming today." she said.

He chuckled. "Well the only other option I had was to listen to your command and sleep. Why would I do that when I could be your loyal guard dog?".

She giggled, pushing his chest, although it did her no good, and laid back against the truck bench. "Shut up, you giant, six foot six behemoth."

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Ollie!"

"Jessica!"

"Sideswipe!"

"Jessica!"

"Mirage!"

"Jessica!"

"Stop!"

"No!"

"Never!"

"Ugh!"

Jessica flopped onto the ground with a flustered sigh, crossing her legs, making sure to not use her fingers.

"No! Jessy, you gotta move! We could run you over!"

"Then run me over!"

Sideswipe's friend, Mirage, snorted before flicking his hair out of his eyes. "We can't. We'd be killed if we did."

She furrowed her brow. "By who? Well, maybe my Mother."

Sideswipe laughed, closing his car door and plopping down beside her. "Your Mother sounds like a strong female."

Jess snorted. "Strong? No. Passionate, crazy, and willing to break laws for something? Yes. One hundred percent. Absolutely."

Sideswipe gave a booming laugh as Ollie trotted up, sniffing Jess's knees before collapsing on the ground with a groan. "Oof, Ollie! Watch the nails! They haven't dried yet!

He let his tongue hang out the side of his mouth in a smile, and looked up at this owner.

"He always do that to just you? I tried playing with him yesterday but he wouldn't get as playful as he does around you." Sideswipe asked as Mirage sat in front of them.

"Yeah. Since I got him he's been my big man. He just kind of stuck to my side and hasn't left. Eh? My big boy?" she asked rhetorically."Yes, he's **my** baby. Not yours, _mine_." she said in a childish voice.

Ollie let go of all of his weight, and Jess groaned. "No, go lay on Sideswipe. You're heavy."

With another groan, Ollie got up, walking in a circle before plopping down on Sideswipe's lap, and the blonde man _'oof'_ed. "Geez."

Jess laughed, making sure the fresh nail polish that adorned her nails hadn't been messed up.

"Why red?" Sideswipe asked suddenly as she blew on them.

"Because that's the color of my car, and she likes my car more than yours." Mirage said with a smirk.

Sideswipe scowled. "S'that true?"

Jess laughed. "No. I joked to Optimus that I'd steal his job, except I can't **see** it because he never washes Captain. So I'm rubbing it in his face." she answered.

"Captain?" Mirage asked.

"Yeah, his truck. Captain." she nodded, blowing on the nails. "Once they're dry I'm going to paint blue flames over the tips."

"Have you ever thought of being an artist? Maybe opening a nail salon?" Mirage asked in his fancy Italian accent.

"I did, but I've always loved driving big trucks more." she answered.

Ollie groaned as he rolled over in Sidesiwpe's lap, who groaned. "Your dog is so heavy."

Jess gasped. "How _dare_ you."

Mirage laughed as Ollie got up and slunk over to lay in front of his human. Sideswipe whined at the loss, but Ollie just huffed as he placed his head down on the pavement.

"Why are we in here anyways?" Jess asked.

"'Cause! One of our old comrades is coming back today for a little while and you get to meet him." Sideswipe answered.

"Code name?" she asked.

Mirage snorted. "At least you **know**. Bumblebee."

She nodded. "That's cute."

"Not as cute as I am." Sideswipe gloated.

"You sure? That's not really a tall mountain to climb." Jess teased.

Mirage tilted his head back as he bellowed out a laugh and Sideswipe let his jaw drop while she smiled. Excitedly, Ollie stood up off the ground with a shake of his tail and jumped around with a loud bark.

"Jess! That's so mean!" Sideswipe yelled.

"That was a good one." Mirage said. "I'd ask you for a high five, except your nails aren't quite dry yet."

She smiled up at the black haired man. "Thanks.. bro."

"Of course.. dude." he winked and she laughed again.

When the red paint dried, along with the clear layer she'd applied over it, she picked up the blue bottle from her pocket and the thin painting brush, dipping it in the bottle and coming back out with paint on it. She placed her hand flat on the ground and drew the outline of the flames on each finger before filling each finger in. She waited for that hand to semi-dry before doing the next one. With Sideswipe's help, the two of them managed to blow her nails dry, and she coated them with another clear layer. The two blew those dry as well, then she smiled and spread her hands away from her chest, admiring her work.

"They do kinda look like Boss Bot's paint job." Sideswipe laughed.

Jess laughed. "Boss **Bot**. Is that a thinly veiled reference to his ability to go all emotionless-robot whenever stuff gets serious?" she asked.

Mirage chuckled. "Yeah, in a sense."

She snorted, looking at her nails again. "Either way, at least you can see my paint. Poor Captain's cacked with eight and a half layers of dirt, I swear."

Sideswipe leaned back, holding himself up with his arms. "Why don't you wash him?"

She furrowed her brows, looking at him. "I'm allowed to do that? I thought only the mechanics were allowed to touch the vehicles."

Sideswipe chuckled as Mirage snorted. "The base mechanics aren't allowed to touch our cars."

She furrowed her brow even more. "What? Then who fixes them? What the hell?" she asked.

Sideswipe chuckled. "We do. But I know for a fact you're allowed to touch Optimus's truck if you want to. Appreciate it if you gave my sexy beast a wash too." he said with a wink.

She deadpanned. "Sexy beast is an understatement. Optimus's truck? That is a rather sexy piece of beastly metal, as far as vehicles go. Corvettes? Not as much."

The two men around her bellowed in laughter again, and Mirage almost fell back.

"I am **offended**." Sideswipe said around his laughs.

"Good." she nodded as she grabbed Ollie's back legs.

He grunted, turning his body around to sniff her.

"Hi my handsome boy. Hmm? How's my Oliver?" she asked with a smile.

He huffed at her before backing up and placing his butt in her lap.

"Oh, Ollie. I didn't say sit." she groaned again.

"Ha ha." Sideswipe teased.

"I will hurt you." she threatened emptily.

He snorted. "Like you could even touch me, shorty."

She smiled, looking around Ollie to connect eyes with him. "No, but your shiny piece of tin is parked outside of **my** window while you sleep. And you seem to put your life and soul of love into that thing. So if I hurt _him_, by default I hurt you too."

He narowed his eyes. "You wouldn't dare."

She smirked. "I wake up before everybody to do yoga. You wouldn't even hear me. Or maybe I'll let Ollie lay on your hood while I do yoga and he can dent it. His nails will scratch the paint too. I don't need to be _tall_ or _large_, to be **powerful**." she smirked, making a drum roll using Ollie's back. He raised his head and let out a bark in agreement with what she said, his floppy lips shaking around.

Sideswipe crossed his arms. "Fine."

She smirked again. "When is what's-his-face coming? I'm going to be starving soon."

Mirage snorted. "I can walk you to the cafeteria if you wish. Sideswipe has to be hear to meet 'Bee."

She pondered it for a second, then nodded. "Sure. Come on, my lovely Italian army friend." she said, standing up and offering her arm to him.

With a chuckle, he slipped his arm through hers. She threw a goodbye over her shoulder to Sideswipe as Ollie trotted out in front of them, sniffing the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

**Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you're all enjoying this time, and thank you all for being so supportive of my work, especially during times like these! Enjoy!**

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

Jess opened the big window in her room. It was right around four in the morning, the sun was **just barely** peeking over the horizon. Enough light to see outside, but not enough to wake everybody up yet. She looked both ways, smiling to see the special cars involved in the military on this base, all parked in a circle.. She leaned down, grabbing the bucket that sat on the ground beside her. Inside it held two large, yellow sponges, three bottles of soap, a thing of turtle wax and a wax rag.

Yesterday, after she met Bumblebee - who had proven himself to be the absolute cutest person to ever exist on this planet - she set up a hose that connected to a water well, making sure the hose could reach behind her room, where the cars were always parked. She opened the window the whole way, and reached one leg out to place a bare foot on Captain's hood. Optimus always parked Captain right outside the window in the perfect position so that the hood was right under the window, but the headlights weren't looking into the room that way the light didn't wake her up in the morning. Today, it left a perfect step for her to slink out. She made sure she didn't slip, before plopping onto the ground safely and walked over to the middle of the circle and put the bucket down beside the hose, then trotting back to Captain's hood.

"Ollie." she whispered.

There was a grunt, before the black and white head popped up over the window railing.

"Careful." she said quietly, and he stepped down onto Captain's hood, his nails clinking against the metal. "No, Ollie! Ollie! Off the beast!"

Ollie jumped down quickly, and walked over to where she placed the bucket and laid down, tired. She walked over to the house and turned it on lightly, pointing it away from the dog. When it got to the right temperature, she put everything out of the bucket, filled it with water and a little squirt of soap, watching the bubbles form and float to the top, then placed the hose down. She slipped her shoes off, placing them beside Ollie, and pulled off her shirt and shorts, leaving her in her two piece, gray swimsuit that had more of a shiny tint that made it look silver, then turned around and gasped.

"Look! I match with the idiot's Corvette." she joked quietly.

She picked up the hose and turned it back on, yanked it over to the massive truck. It was caked in eight layers of dirt, three layers of dust and a layer of a blue colored.. gunk, for a lack of better terms. It smelled weird too, like gasoline and copper, and like a mix of goo and sticky blood to touch.

"Oh gross. What the hell does Optimus do to my poor danger-barricade. Poor Captain." she joked, then took a step back, looking at the grill with a devious smile. "Guess we'll just have to **fix** that." she smirked, then turned the hose on full blast before directing it at the chrome grill. She smiled as the water splashed against the truck, and she turned the hose onto the jet stream, praying it would help peel off all the stuff that was stuck to him, which it did - thankfully. Less scrubbing for her.

She managed to pre soak the vehicle with a whole layer of water, then reached into the bucket as she turned off the hose, picking up two sponges that were filled with water and soap. Then she turned and smiled at the truck.

"See? Optimus doesn't do this for you, does he?" she asked rhetorically, walking closer. She stopped at the grill, where the weird emblem sat at the top proudly. She'd noticed that they all seemed to adorn that emblem not only on their clothes, but their cars as well. They had it everywhere, like a crazy devoted Catholics would put the cross everywhere.

She stopped in front of the grill with a smile, leaning her body towards him. "No. No, he doesn't clean you. See? I'm the one you should like more, because I'm better than your freakishly tall driver." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "_I'm_ the one you should love, because I love you more than he does. Obviously."

A second or two later, she let her head fall back with a laugh. "Alright Captain, let's get scrubbing." she said, plopping the two sponges on the hood. "And I swear to God, if this doesn't make me **his** favourite, I will cut his nuts off and reattach them using packets of jam from the cafeteria." she said, using the tires to climb up on to the hood.

Crawling on her hands and knees, she grabbed the sponges and started scrubbing.

About five minutes into scrubbing, she looked up and pointed at the silver Corvette that was facing the truck, as if watching amusingly.

"Don't you be laughing, you're next. You little shitter." she smirked.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Jess!"

She groaned, shoving her head under a pillow. "What?"

"Get up!"

Jess groaned. "No! It's my summer, leave me alone." she said back weakly.

Washing had taken more time than she thought it would, and it took her until six that morning to finish waxing **all** of Captain. She wasn't kidding when she called Captain a behemoth; he was _massively_ huge.

Then, as promised, she ran a hose over Sideswipe's car, who she began calling Hot Shot. She soaped him, not having to scrub all too hard to remove the light layer of dirt that clung to his sides, but by the time she was finished with waxing him, it was almost seven thirty. She retreated to her room again, pushing Ollie in through the window with effort, then used Captain as a stool to get in herself.

However, here she was, lying in bed at eight thirty, having just **really** fallen asleep, and having someone bang on the bedroom door to wake her up.

"No! Up!"

She groaned, turning over in her bed and expecting to to be on her back until she realized she was on the edge of her bed, but by then it was too late.

She fell off the bed and landed on the floor with a loud _bang_. She groaned, letting her head fall back onto the floor.

"Jess?! What happened?" the voice yelled into her room.

She groaned aloud again, instead yanking the blanket of her bed and cocooned herself in it, tangling the fabric in between her legs.

"Jessica! Open this god damned door or I'll break it down."

Jess covered her head with the blanket as she used her arms as a pillow. Outside the door, there was a muffled. "Go get the key."

Then she forgot that she'd locked the door last night so that no one cold come in and see her not sleeping. She groaned in an attempt to tell them that the spare key was under the piece of duct tape that was on the top of the door frame, but her lack of sleep stopped her from making any real coherent sentence. Instead, it was more of nonsensical mumbles stringed together as one long sound.

"It's not there." a muffled response said.

"Jessica! Open this fucking door! Now!"

She grumbled again, pulling herself along the floor. As she slunk across the floor with effort, the blanket unwravelled from her body until she reached the door. With a tired scream into the floor, she leaned up.

"Jess?!"

She continued reaching up until the tips of her fingers managed to just **barely** wrap around the door knob, and pulled it open, the lock coming undone. She collapsed back down to the ground, covering her head with her arms as the sound of nails ticking along the floor rang through the room. Ollie barked as the door opened, and he trotted up to her side, growling at whoever was behind the door.

When he didn't stop barking after a whole minute, Jess let out a nonsensical scream again. "Ollie!" she screamed at him right after.

She lifted a hand to slap him as a way to shut him up. Of course, he managed to evade her hand, but it shut him up.

It was silent for about a minute and a half.

"Jess?" this time, the voice was clear enough that she could recognize Robert's voice - Epps.

She groaned.

"What was that bang?" another voice - Will - asked.

"Me." she grumbled.

"Did you... fall out of bed?"

She grumbled in response, and felt a paw on her back. She groaned out Ollie's name, sounding more like she was in pain, but he didn't respond to it.

"Ollie, off."

The dog growled lightly, but stepped off of her and she moaned in relief, grumbling out a thank you towards him. Then someone grabbed her by her forearms and pulled her up off the floor as she moaned.

"Noo." she moaned as whoever it was placed her on her feet, catching her as she swayed around.

"Jess, why are you still asleep?"

She groaned in an answer.

"You were up late last night, weren't you?"

Another grunt.

"Why?"

"My **summer**." she emphasized, then turned and walked over to her bed.

"No, come on. It's almost lunch. Get up."

"I just fell asleep, how is it already lunch? And to do what? It's not like I have anything to do over here besides waste the day away. " she grumbled angrily again.

There was a sigh. "Jess..."

He didn't say anything else and she reached down to yank the blanket off the ground, collapsing on the bed and covering herself up again. Ollie hopped up on the bed, lying beside her and stretching out his back legs as he dropped his head with a huff.

"Jess, come on. You've gotta get up."

She groaned again, covering her head with a pillow.

There was muffled voices, and about two miutes later something grabbed her waist. Whoever it was pulled her off the bed, flipping her over and carrying her in a bridal-like style. She yelled out loud at whoever it was, and whoever it was chuckled, but walked.

She heard Ollie hop off the bed, and the clinging of his tags telling her he was following them.

"You comin' Ollie? Yeah you are, let's go."

She recognized that voice as Robert Epps's, and Ollie yipped, obviously not having a problem with the time of day since he was able to sleep the entire time.

Jess groaned in an attempt to ask where they were going.

"What?" the person carrying her asked.

Was that a British accent?

She groaned out the question again.

"Anywhere but your bed. It's almost twelve in the afternoon, you should be awake. If you do this too often you'll fall into an incorrect sleeping cycle."

Jess groaned aloud again, letting her head roll off of his chest and hang over the ground as if the muscles in her neck didn't work anymore.

"Do you even have the slightest curiosity as to what we're dragging you out of bed for?" she recognized Will's voice.

She groaned out her answer; no. She didn't really care either, she wanted sleep.

"You're going off base again. This time for an overnight trip."

This caught her attention.

She raised her head quickly, almost too quickly, and connected eyes with Ironhide, who was carrying her. She opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. She repeated the action two or three more times.

"I swear if you're lying, I will literally kill you and steal your truck to turn it into extra scrap metal for my Jeep."

He rolled his eyes. "I do not lie about such simple things. Major Lennox will explain more in a few minutes."

She groaned, and let herself go limp again in his arms.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Jess sat in the passenger seat of Bumblebee's Camaro, her head leaning against the window. The blond haired man had some music playing in the background, and he was tapping hidied s hand along to the rythym on the wheel, his head bopping along with the words as well. Jess was tapping her foot along to the beat as well, drawing little circular patterns into the door with her index finger.

Apparently, her overnight trip meant she and Bumblebee were spending two nights over at Bumblebee's friend's house. They had her bag packed, and even gotten the C-17 ready while she was asleep.

Another plane ride. She almost threw herself out of the window just so that she wouldn't have to live through it again.

Apparently the first time she got to leave base for a night, she didn't even get to choose where she got to go.

Bumblebee seemed nice though so she wasn't totally complaining. He had a nice car too. Radio seemed a little... wonky at time, but it gave him character. She found it pretty adorable. Kind of paradoxical considering it was a Camaro - a muscle car, who even looked menacing and pissed when you stand at the right and look down at his headlights.

They'd made light chatter earlier on during the drive, but Jess was still really tired, so when their last conversation died down, she didn't start a new one with him and instead just enjoyed the silence.

Ollie stuck his head over the center consol with a groan blinking his eyes.

"Hi baby." she mumbled, leaning over to kiss him on the forehead.

He groaned again and she giggled, kissing him on the forehead again.

He sneezed, then looked over and plopped his head down on Bumblebee's shoulder. The young man chuckled at the seemingly tired dog, petting the side of his head when he huffed at the boy again for the lack of attention he recieved.

Then he pulled into a driveway.

It was a two story house, but that wasn't what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the yard. It was practically perfect as if each individual blade of grass was measured and slice with the perfect knife evenly. The fountain in the middle had the perfect amount of water flowing through it, not too much to make it overflow but not too little to make it look empty. The flowers were in their prime bloom and the pots that hung from the roof weren't too full to make it look bad or fake.

"Holy shit." Jess said, looking out the window.

Bumblebee let out a loud laugh with a nod and Ollie barked as the aforementioned parked his car in the drive way.

Jess opened her door, her mouth in a perfect 'O'. Ollie followed out, stepping over the center consol instead of waiting for her to move the chair, and onto the ground. He sniffed the gravel below them, then the Great Dane twitched his ears.

"This is your friend's house?" she asked.

"Yeah. Well... his parents' house. But he's only in Grade 12 so yeah he's still living here for now." he nodded. "Oh, you might wanna grab Ollie's collar?"

Jess furrowed her brow, but her hand reached down and grabbed the chain collar that sat around Ollie's neck loosely.

Just as she did, a little bright brown rat yipped as it ran out of the house. It wore some kind of jewelled blue collar that looked freshly sparkled. His eyes were so wide you'd think they were about to pop out of his skull and his little teeth were bared as if he was a wolf about to tear flesh.

Really, all he was was a gutsy Chihuahua.

And she was holding back one of the biggest Great Danes she'd ever seen. He even outgrew his Dad at only two and a half years of age.

It made her laugh out loud with Bumblebee, who was laughing so hard that he was bent at the waist and almost crying.

"Mojo! What the f- Bee!"

Jess looked over to see a dark haired guy about her age stood on the porch with a shocked face.

"Dude, you weren't supposed to be back until, like, two more weeks. Man, what are you doin' back bro?" he smiled as he walked off the porch onto the walkway. The Chihuahua got closer, barking at Ollie.

The black and white Great Dane stepped in front of Jess as a means of a protective wall between the oncoming threat (barely existent, but still a threat in his mind) and his lip turned up to show off his large incisors. Jess tightened her hold on his collar.

"Sam, this is Jess. She's my friend that'll be sleeping with me tonight." Bee introduced. "Jess this is Sam."

Straining the muscles in her arm to keep Ollie from moving forward towards the rat like he wanted to and was pulling on her to do, she gave him a smile. "Nice to meet you."

He smiled, then shock flew across his face. "Oh! Mojo, stop it!"

He hurried over and picked up the brown and white little Chihuahua, giving him a scolding that he obviously ignored.

Ollie relaxed, his muscles going slack, and he even sat down beside Jess's leg as he licked his lips.

Sam turned and dropped him in the house, closing the door.

He kind of reminded her her old locker neighbhor, James, only older. An awkward, dark haired guy that seemed a slight amount like a "loser" compared to others, but his heart in the right place.

That made her think of home.

She missed it.

And her Jeep. She missed her Jeep.

"Sorry, he's got a male dominance thing. Who's this" he asked as he returned to them.

"This is Ollie." she said.

"Yeah, sorry Sam. He kind of had to come with us." Bumblebee said, scratching his head.

"That's fine. I'll lock Mojo in my parents' room with some food and water tonight." Sam waved off. "They're still on their re-run of Italy so they won't be home for a while."

Bumblebee laughed. "Yeah, because they had **such** a good trip the first time."

Sam chuckled as well and Jess, oblivious to what they were laughing at, stood there awkwardly and shifted her weight as she let go of his collar but pet Ollie on the head just to make sure he didn't take off.

"Well, come on in. I've gotta go pick up Mik soon anyways, so I'll show you around first." he offered.

Sam brought them into the house, which was just as nice as the yard although a little more cluttered. Ollie, being as over protective over Jess as he was, didn't leave her side even when that Chihuahua started yipping from where he was being kept.

"So that's the kitchen, and there's the living room. The movies are in that case right there, and- Frankie no!"

A Bulldog looking dog jumped off the couch with a bark, but froze where he was and just stared at Ollie. He didn't growl or bark, just stared at him with wide eyes. Ollie tensed again, not as much as the first time, but moved in front of Jess again.

"Oh wow, he's protective over you." Sam said as he stepped forward towards the Bulldog. "Come on Frankie, let's go."

Just as Sam went to pick him up, Frankie bolted forward out of his reach and pounced down on the ground. His big tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth and he yipped happily. Ollie visibly jerked back, but then he let his tongue flopped out of his mouth too in what Jess knew what his doggy-smile, and he kneeled down, his butt sticking up in the air and his tails wagging. Frankie barked and jumped forward to try and tackle the dog that was nearly ten times his size. Ollie barked loudly at him and suddenly the little brown rat came flying out of the room he was in and jumped on top of Ollie's back in an attempt to play to. The Great Dane jumped up which made the Chihuahua fall to the ground and land on his back. He flopped around until he was on his four paws and he and Ollie sniffed noses before Frankie broke the pair up.

"No, no, Mojo!" Sam yelled.

"It's fine." Jess waved off. "They're being good."

Sam nodded at her. "Well, I've got the pull out couch all ready for you. I'm gonna head to the shower real quick then change before I go pick up Mik. Bee knows where everything is, the phone's right there, if you guys want you can order pizza and use our credit account."

Bee nodded. "Is that good with you Jess?"

She nodded. "Yeah that's good."

Bee nodded. "Perfect. Thanks bro."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, 'course."

The two bumped fists before Sam left to the top level of the house. The coffee table was moved to almost box in the area, while the bed was pulled out and well made, with three pillows at the top and an ratty looking blanket that had obviously seen better days, with sewn on patches all over it. The TV that sat in front of it was on and playing some movie quietly. Jess stepped over the table and dropped her small bag on to the ground beside the couch.

It reminded her of her old blanket. It was one of those fake fur throw blankets with a picture of a pack of wolves on the front. Her birth Dad had gotten it for her when she was three years old because their house used to get really cold at night before her step-Dad installed a new heating system. He told her when he came home with it and gave it to her that the wolves on the front would protect her from all the monsters she'd ever come across in her life. She used it so much that there was multiple holes in it. Her Mom sewed the holes back up with patches that didn't match, leaving it looking completely wrecked, old, and ratty, but she used it for her entire life from the time she got it because it was one of the only things she got from her Dad that she could remember.

She could remember very little from Father.

Bumblebee, who was walking in behind her, picked up a phone.

"You have any preference pizza-wise?" he asked.

She shook her head as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. "No, choose whatever kind you want."

He nodded. "Movies are over there, choose whichever on you want and we'll start with that one."

She nodded and walked over to the case as Ollie hopped onto the bed and settled at the end.


	11. Chapter 11

**This one is short. Like, really short. I didn't mean to, but in the next two chapters nothing flowed that easily and I had a hard time connecting them together, but I did my best. Exams are over and semester 2 is upon me. I'm hoping that that I can update a little more periodically, but I'm not sure at this point. Either way I hope you guys enjoy this!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Mikaela was a pretty girl. Like, a **really** pretty girl. To be honest, Jess was kind of confused as to how Sam and Mikaela ended up together. She had beautiful, long dark hair and gorgeous blue iris' that popped against her tanned skin. She had beautiful facial symmetry too, from her perfect cheekbones to the perfect shape of her eyes.

She was nice too. Jess let her teenage brain get the best of her and assumed that since she looked flawless, she'd be nothing but a bitch, but this girl did not live up to the stereotype. At all.

Sam had ended up asking her to come over first before they both got into Sam's Dad's car and left. Her and Sam left around five thirty, and the pizza showed up fifteen minutes later.

Jess changed into a pair of cotton pajama shorts and a tank top, and Bee switched into a muscle tee and baggy sweat pants. She had a slice of pizza and Bumblebee took two before they settled in to watch Pacific Rim, however halfway through they wound up talking about something else and from there the conversation spiralled, with the movie acting more as background music.

"He did not!" Jess gasped.

Bumblebee snorted, but nodded. "He did. He isn't as smart as he portrays."

Jessica threw her head back and laughed. "Sideswipe got his hand stuck in a vending machine?"

Bumblebee laughed once. "It's even more hilarious when you say it, but yeah he did."

"How?"

"Trying to show off for some girl he wanted to impress," Bumblebee shrugged with a chuckle. "It was hilarious."

Jess giggled as she picked up her can of Coke from the side table. "Oh, and he makes himself seem like the world's biggest ladies man."

Bumblebee snorted. "Not even close. He tries but..."

Jess laughed quietly again as she put her can down. "Ugh, he kind of reminds me of my best friend."

"Best friend?"

She nodded. "Yeah, Sam. She's alot like Sideswipe, except not nearly as cocky as him and not as... blunt and stand off-ish as Sideswipe is, but he does remind me of her." she explained.

Bumblebee seemingly studied her for a moment or two.

"You miss her, don't you?"

She lost her smile and nodded. "I've known her for almost all my life. She told me about her first boyfriend the day they got together. I told her about me losing my virginity two minutes after I left the guy's house. I don't think we've ever had secrets between us."

Bumblebee furrowed your brow. "You've-y-what?" he asked.

She looked over at him confusedly. "What?"

"The thing about... you losing..." he trailed.

She looked at him strangely. "My virginity? What about it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, just... I didn't expect it, I guess."

She chuckled. "Yeah, I didn't either. It was just the douche bag I was hanging around with at the time. I thought he and I were starting to get close, but apparently not."

He gave her a look that was somewhat mixed with pity. "You regret it?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Kinda, but it also taught me a big lesson that I'm glad I learned early on. The guy I'm meant to be with won't make feel like I need to prove myself to him." she shrugged. "Besides, I don't even know if I want a relationship anymore."

His eyes got slightly wide. "Why not? Is it a confidence issue?"

She looked at him strangely. "What? No, nothing like that, it's just," she pulled her legs up to sit Indian style, and grabbed one of her ankles. "I want to drive trucks for a living. I used to consider maybe opening a nail salon or something because I love doing that too, but driving trucks... the love I have for it always wins out. And I don't want some silly one, I want to travel around the world. Even if it's just seeing the highways, I want to go far with my loads. Long distance hauler. That doesn't really leave a lot of time for a relationship. Not the way I want to do it anyways." she explained.

Bumblebee nodded. "You'd rather work than have a family?"

She laughed. "To be honest, so long as I'm not sacrificing something important up, I'll avoid anything and everything in order to get a job I enjoy. Just how it goes. Plus, if I'm not gonna have a relationship, that doesn't leave any room for kids.". Again, she shrugged. "Not that big of a deal. This planet has more than enough kids running around without homes. Don't need to contribute to that with more kids."

He nodded.

"Okay, no more about me, what about you? You got a special lady back home?" she asked in a teasing tone.

His eyes got distant looking as if thinking of something you try to block out for the most part. "No. No, I haven't been home in a long time."

She immediately felt bad for bringing it up. It was obviously a touchy subject for him that brought painful memories and a mix of unwanted emotions with it, so she reached out and grabbed his bicep lightly.

"Sorry Bumblebee. I shouldn't have brought it up." she apologized.

He shrugged. "It's fine. You didn't know."

"That doesn't excuse the fact that you feel shitty because of it now. Seriously Bumblebee, I'm sorry." she said.

He looked up with a tight smile. "It's alright."

She smiled sympathetically at him. "You want the rest of the pizza or can I chuck it in the fridge?"

He smiled with a silent chuckle. "Nah, I'm surprised I could do two pieces in the first places."

She nodded. "Unless you want to keep watching a movie on giant ocean aliens, you can switch it to one you want, I'll be back. I'll feed the dogs too, I don't think your buddy did before he left with his girlfriend."

Jess let go of his arm and stood up, picking up the cardboard box and the remaining pieces of the pizza. Ollie groaned at her before getting up and following her. This, of course, caused a chain reaction of the black and white dog jumpin down to follow him, who was soon pursued by the brown rat of a dog.

Bumblebee's friend had left the box of dog food on the counter so she opened the fridge and dumped the box down, then pulled the dog food scooper out and filled the two bowls of the smaller dogs, who began eating right away. Ollie sat patiently and waited as she put the borrowed bowl full of his food down. He waited until she was about to leave the kitchen to eat.

When she got back to the living room, Bumblebee was resting on the pull out couch relaxedly, the beginning screen for the movie Spiderman 3 up on the TV. He had his two hands under his head - which made his bicep muscles pop out to catch her eye - and he had a pillow under his head as well.

He looked over at her as she walked in and smiled. "This good?"

She nodded. "Yeah, this is fine."

She stepped over the coffee table and lay herself on the bed. She covered herself with the blanket and Bumblebee hit play.

It wasn't too long after that, that she fell asleep.

_** X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

When she woke up the next morning she was touching back to back with Bumblebee, who was tipped over on his side as well. Their feet were tangled together at the end of the bed, and Ollie had his head propped on her feet, while the two small dogs slept on the unused parts of their pillows.

Sam, who she thought was coming home, wound up staying at Mikaela's until afternoon. That morning went by fast and before she knew it, it was one o'clock. They'd eaten the left over pizza in the fridge for lunch

"So what do you want to do?" Bumblebee asked.

She shrugged as Ollie fidgeted in her lap. She leaned down and kissed his forehead.

"Not sure. You choose." she answered.

He chuckled. "If I choose, we'll just end up watching movies all day."

She laughed. "Alright, well... does Sam have a computer? I'm not from around here so I don't really know what there is to do around here. I'll Google some stuff for us to do."

Bumblebee chuckled. "Sure. Right over there." he said.

She walked over and turned the monitor on. It bleeped to life and she clicked on the Internet Explorer link. Google was the home screen that came up.

"Here, I'll help." Bumblebee said.

He brought up a page of activities to do, and she looked through the list.

After ten minutes, she sighed. "There's nothing that catches my eye to do," she looked behind her at Bumblebee. "Why are we even here?"

He pulled a kitchen table chair out, and sat on it backwards - the way guys do where they have the back of the chair in front of them to rest their arms there, and were basically stradling the seat - then furrowed his brow at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," she emphasized the word, "Why am I here? Why do I suddenly get a sleepover? And why here, why couldn't I just... go for a sleepover at home?"

"Oh," Bumblebee started, "Well they wanted you off the base because there's a big... mission, I guess, that they're being deployed on, and they didn't want you to see the aftermath of it. You're still only a civilian, they didn't want to scar you or anything." he explained. "As for why you couldn't go home, our Director of National Intelligence wouldn't allow it."

She nodded, but her brow furrowed. "Why?"

Bumblebee laughed. "That's the question everybody asks when that man makes a call or does something that involves us. I haven't got a clue why the government hasn't reassigned him yet. Nobody likes him, all he does it make everything more complicated and messy for us all."

She nodded, looking back at the computer screen. "Yeah, I met him once or twice. He seems..." She was unable to find words to described it, and he laughed.

"Yeah, exactly."

"So," she started, "Then why does he stick around? Why hasn't he been reassigned?"

Bumblebee chuckled. "'Cause he's the Security Advisor, and the President feels as though he needs someone like him around our base."

She shrugged. "Well... what's a military base with an obnoxious narcisist walking around, ordering people what to do?" she joked.

He chuckled, and the subject seemed to drop.

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**Like I said, short. Very, really, truly short and I'm really sad about that, but oh well. Next one is a little longer. Hope you enjoyed!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey everybody! So, this was originally shorter but by the grace of everything divine I managed to make this chapter longer than it was before and I'm pretty proud of it. I hope you guys enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

The two managed to fill their day with a little bit of everything, they ate at a small diner, took the three dogs to the park, drove around a little while singing to whatever was on the radio at the top of their lungs, and capped the night off with walking around downtown. The city's 'downtown' reminded her of something you'd see in movies, with twinkling christmas lights that hung from the trees and were just never taken down, fluroscent, neon store signs, and cute little shops everywhere. She found herself wishing there was something like this in her home town.

Much to her surprise, she found herself wishing it was Optimus in Bumblebee's position as the two of them walked down the streets and through all the stores and shops, laughing at funny stories and talking about their lives to one another as if they had all the time in the world to just spend together and learn everything about each other.

When they got back to Sam's, said boy was already asleep and wiped out, so they settled on the pull out bed with the three dogs and each other, and fell asleep together while watching some documentary on the Greek gods.

The next morning they were up at six in the morning in order to get back to base. Ollie lay sprawled out along the back seat, and Jess sat with her head resting against the window, half asleep, watching the young men hug one last time.

"Hey, I'll see ya in two weeks, right?" Sam asked.

Bumblebee chuckled. "Yeah, it's still set."

Sam nodded. "Have a safe ride Bee. Give my best to the other guys."

Ollie groaned and stuck his head over the center console.

Bumblebee got back in the driver's seat and put the car in reverse as they back out of the driveway.

"D'you enjoy your weekend out?" Bumblebee joked.

She nodded."Yeah. It was nice to have a TV for entertainment and junk food for dinner instead of the healthy crap you guys eat."

Bumblebee laughed aloud as they drove past the green light and away from the house.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Jessica?"

Eyelids snapped open, revealing a pair of bright blue eyes that looked up at the sky. A white cloud shaped like a pretzel caught their attention, and the eyes followed the cloud from where she lay on her yoga mat, untensing her muscles from earlier. The pretzel cloud stretched out quickly, becoming nothing more than a puff of white floating in the air, free to go where it wished. Jess tilted her head to the right.

Optimus stood beside his truck, leaning almost all of his weight onto the side of his truck's hood. The poor thing looked like it had gone to Hell and back. Optimus's hair, normally looking very proper even if it wasn't ever styled due to the length or lack thereof, was spiked at the tip, akin to that of a stressed man who was spending his time pulling on his hair between his fingers. His stubble, regularly just the right amount to make it look like there was a shadow along his face, was slightly darker and more pronounced which hinted that he hadn't really shaved in weeks, and it had grown a little. The muscles that riddled his form over his shoulders and up and down his back were either tense or knotted (and obviously uncomfortable either way), and he had dark bags under his eyes. A few bruises covered his tattoo-filled arms, along scrapes and cuts that had probably been bleeding earlier. His shirt was wrinkled, and half of it was untucked, showing only half of the odd face-like belt buckle he near constantly adorned. His pants were wrinkled as well, a very large contrast from the way he normally presented himself: tall, proud, and regal, a person who seemed to never worry and could be everyone's rock when they needed someone solid to let their fears out. A leader.

She sat up, placing her elbows on her bent knees, but didn't break eye contact. Whether it was from her exhaustion and lack of sleep, or whatever else, but she sensed that he was more than okay with the shortage of verbal communication and quite alright with the contact going between their eyes.

Either way she furrowed her brows questioningly; what was he doing here?

In response to her unanswered question, he shrugged - something she'd **never** _ever_ expect from Optimus. It made her even more confused. Since when was Optimus so nonchalant about stuff? That was so unlike him that for a second she was convinced it wasn't actually him.

She raised an eyebrow as she studied him again, taking in the way his muscles twitched, but remained so tense you would've thought they were pulled out over a violin bow. She ran back up from his feet all the way up to make eye contact with him again, his eyes almost glowing.

Finally, she gave him a sympathetic look.

"You look like shit, man."

She stood up, rolling her yoga mat up, and walked over to the window to her room, tossing it in. From inside, on the bed, Ollie groaned at the noise.

"When was the last time you actually got a good eight hourse of sleep, Optimus?" she asked, walking over and placing her foot on Captain's fender. She pulled herself up on to his hood, and leaned against the windshield.

"I can not remember, however that is not-"

"So help me God, you say that isn't important and I will kick you in the nuts and permanently dent Captain's fender." she warned, then patted the metal beside her. "Up, up."

He furrowed his brow at her request, but climbed up none the less. She laughed. "You look so confused. What, you worried I'll dent your baby?" she asked, patting the Peterbilt's hood again.

"That is the last thing I feel you could ever possibly do to... Captain. Trust me," he said. "If anything, I would worry that the fall from the hood to the ground would hurt you."

She laughed. "Don't worry about me. I'm a big girl, and I ain't made of porcelain. I survive."

He didn't respond in anyway.

She ran a hand through her hair to get it out of her eyes, leaning back against the windshield.

"I don't know what you guys do with these things out in the field, but it took me almost four hours to clean Captain. Thanks for saving the world, but seriously? That was a lot of work, man." she asked in a half joking manner.

He looked over at her. "That was you?"

She nodded. "Sideswipe said I could. Would've probably been smart to ask you too, now that I'm thinking of it though. Sorry."

He shook his head. "You have no need to apologize Jessica. I appreciate it."

She smiled minutely at him.

They sat beside each other in the silence for a little while, and Jess's eyes attached on to the horizon, where the sun was just barely peeking over the edges.

After about three minutes her eyes switched directions and ran over the few bruises that covered his arms. They weren't too prominent, but Jess felt really bad for him. Bruises meant pain on some level.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Pardon?" he asked in a mumbled tone.

She reached over and ran her fingers over the bruises, not realizing that his head had snapped over to look at her. His gaze, more like an extremely instense stare, bore into her face as she looked over the bruises. Her fingers still had the flamed paint job over her nails and they were still clinging on for as long as they could. Her touch was feather light, as if she was worried that she'd hurt him despite that statistic being very unlikely.

She happened to glance up and noticed his constant stare, finally connecting her eyes with his. She hadn't realized how close they were until now. He was so close to her that she could feel his breath fanning over her face. He smelled like a mix of truck oil, a cologne that she didn't know, mint, and a smell she couldn't really pinpoint so instead just marked it as a "man smell". She didn't mean to, but she felt her hearbeat accelerate and her breaths quickening in only the slightest and prayed that he couldn't tell.

His eyes flicked down and then back up to her eyes quickly and she swallowed.

"Do they hurt?" she asked quietly, trying her best to switch the subject before something that wasn't supposed to happen, did.

He shook his head. "No. Not right now."

She should really take her hand off of his arm. She should scoot farther from him, there was still plenty of room on Captain's hood to sit comfortably. She should back her face away from his and gain space.

But then again, she wanted to move closer. She wanted to reach out and squeeze his arm just to see exactly how large his muscle there was. She wanted their faces to be closer together. She wanted them to have plenty of space left on Captain's hood to roll around on. She wanted to bring her face as close as humanly possible to his and take all of his space up.

Then someone at her bedroom door knocked on it, and Ollie barked. Her head whipped around and his shot up to look through the window at the door.

She stood up, feeling the lack of heat that radiated from his body, and walked across the rest of Captain's hood until she was close enough, ducked through the window and jumped off the railing onto the floor.

"Ollie e-" she cleared her throat "Enough."

The black and white pooch stopped with his barking. Jess wrapped her hand around the knob and took a deep breath to recenter herself before opening it.

Ratchet stood outside the door, holding a clipboard with a paper flipped over already. He looked up at her quickly.

"Good morning Jessica. I know it's fairly early but I was wondering if you'd be willing to come with me for a mammogram. If you're uncomfortable I can give you 24 hours to process it. I'll have a female nurse go through with the procedure, but I'll be looking at the results." he asked her.

She glanced over her shoulder to see that Optimus had gone, but Captain was still by her window.

She nodded. "Yeah, just let me throw a sweater over this and get some shoes."

He nodded. "Thank you. I'll be right out here."

She nodded, closing the door once again and yanked a hoodie out from her closet, shoving her feet in a pair of running shoes. She slipped the hoodie on and opened the door. As he said, Ratchet was waiting for her. He offered her a small, toothless smile as she closed the door for the last time and followed him to the Med Bay.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Ollie's favourite spot to lay while the two of them watched what she had dubbed "newbie training" quickly changed from being at her ankles to being on her lap. When she and Bumblebee came back from her weekend away, there was a new _"special"_ guy. He went by yet another stupid code name - Sunstreaker - and to say Sideswipe seemed excited to see him would be an understatement. The blond was **ecstatic** to see him. They basically were twins with different colored hair and two different personalities. She assumed that they were related somehow as well. His favourite thing, though, was his car. He owned a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 (according to Sideswipe), but it was colored a beautiful, **bright** gold paint that shone even when the sun wasn't around. She wondered if they made a nail polish that was even close to that colour and shine. Even the ways the hues blended together had her mezmerized. Sunstreaker seemed to be really picky when it came to his car, and **detested** when people touched it, but Jess realized she didn't even want to touch it just in case it would ruin the car's finish.

And Ollie, Ollie had taken a natural dislike towards him. Every opportunity the Dane got to, he'd raise his lip and snarl so loudly that it reminded you of his wolf ancestors. The feeling was seemingly mutual, every chance he got, Sunstreaker would glare at the Dane, and every once in a while he'd make a fake move on the dog. Of course, Ollie would growl, flinch back, and then jump forward. The two would walk away from each other angry and in a bad mood.

But at the same time they loved each other. One of the other soldiers Killian Someone-Or-Other, who was new, went to go punch Sunstreaker but Ollie - who was hanging with Sideswipe at the time - ran forward and snapped his jaws at the man over and over again, barking and growling until he backed off and left. He snarled one last time, then stalked off, leaving Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's side to go find Jess again who was doing yoga at the time. And then, once, one of the mechanics went to go fix something on Sunstreaker's car while he was gone (saying that something was wrong when really he just wanted a peek at the engine), without his permission mind you, and Ollie charged away from her and over, barking and growling. That caught Ironhide's attention, since the Great Dane only barked when something was wrong, and he managed to tell the guy off.

There was a very strict and outlined love-hate relationship between Sunstreaker and Ollie, and they never tried to hide it to anybody, including each other.

"That can **not** be comfortable for you." Bobby chuckled as he walked up.

She shrugged. "Maybe not, but he's comfy so that's all that matters."

The dark coloured man just chuckled, extending a hand so that Ollie could smell it as he crouched.

"Hey Epps!" Will called as he walked over. "You got that written debriefing for the next mission? I can't find the recording, and it would take forever to get it from General Morshower."

Rob nodded and stood up. "Yeah man, I'll go get it. Give me ten. See ya around Jess."

She hummed a goodbye to him as she went back to watching the weapons training that a bunch of new soldiers were going through. A lot of them were guys in their mid to late twenties with large muscles that you'd think are way to stereotypical for a man in the military to be real, and beards that reached their nipples. She didn't know whether to find them attractive or repulsive - she never was one for thick beards.

Of course, there were the younger ones too. The eighteen and nineteen year olds who were deployed right after high school and had nothing on the others. They were weaker, with not nearly as much training as the others, but their can-do attitudes (if they kept it past the training) made up for everything they lacked. A lot of them were cocky and after a year or so of being here figured they owned the place and walked around like they were tough shit. Some of them were most likely sport jocks in high school who wanted to be seen as cool. Then there were the ones who knew from the beginning of high school that they'd come here because they genuinely wanted to make a difference and fight for something they really believed in.

After that, you had the old guys here. They'd been in the military for multiple years and came here on a promotion or because they were assigned here. They varied in age, from late twenties all the way to early fifties. They were the ones she liked the most, they were down to earth, they'd been on enough tours and around enough bases long enough, and knew when to leave her alone versus when she was good to talk.

Ollie grunted as he moved his head around and settled for putting it on the side of the chair. He groaned again, his back leg kicking once again before he tucked it under himself and on her leg to keep himself up.

Suddenly, a large, black truck drove in, followed by a H2 Ambulance, and a Peterbilt 379 Longnose. Ironhide, along with the medic Ratchet, and Optimus hopped out of their respective vehicles.

Without meaning to, Jess let out a near-silent "Mmm" when she watched how Optimus's bicep flexed as he closed the door behind him. Her eyes, without her realizing they were, attached at where his abdomen muscles were. He wore a bright red shirt that clung to him like a practical second skin, and showed off the ab muscles that flexed and constricted as he moved around.

As soon as she realized what she was doing, she looked away quickly and attached her eyes to the biceps on a new recruit with a thick beard instead.

Ollie whined loudly and raised his head to put it in the way of her view. She giggled at his intrusion and scratched behind his bad ear, listening to the groan that came from his throat, and failing to notice the look that Optimus threw in her direction.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

**Remember how at the beginning of the story, I told you all I was gonna bring Sunstreaker in too. I just adore him and his character so much that I couldn't leave him out. Anyways, don't forget to review and enjoy the rest of your day!**


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm actually pretty proud of this chapter! Not really sure why, I just. Also, there is another OC introduced - her is mine, and everything about him is made up and owned by me :) My apologies for the wait friends, I was struggling with writing the LD Chapter 14, 15, and 16 so I didn't want to publish until they were mostly finished, but now I've figured everything out, so we're back on track!**

**Enjoy friends, and don't forget to review!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Jessica Robbins to the Main Hangar One immediately, Jessica Robbins to the Main Hangar One immediately."

Jess looked up at the ceiling with a lifted brow and monotone expression. She sat in her little corner with the pull out chair, Ollie sprawled out on the dog bed that she brought with her in front of her feet on the ground watching the training drills that went on. She was all cuddled and warm in a pair of sweat pants and matching hoodie, the hood sitting on top of her head.

She furrowed her brow at the summons, but pushed herself out of her chair and shoved her hood off her head. Ollie got up and followed her around the sides of the training hangar and out to the tar mac, trotting ahead of her and sniffing the ground like a hunting hound. Then, as if he had a radar in his head that spread fifty metres and an alarm that went off whenever she didn't show up on it anymore, he slammed on his brakes and spun around quickly, launching himself off his hind end and sprinting back to her, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth.

The two of them made it to the Hangar One together, Ollie sticking to her side now that there were more strangers here.

She looked around for William, or even his buddy Rob - Bobby, he had insisted she call him - but she didn't recognize anybody there.

"Excuse me, are you Jessica Robbins?"

She looked behind her as Ollie barked loudly at him, and she reached out quickly to grab hold of his collar before anything else could happen. The man was older, probably almost mid forties with very thin, greying hair and dull blue eyes that held flecks of a hazel colour all around the iris.

"Sorry about him, he's a doofus. Yeah that-that's my name." she nodded.

The man nodded. "You and I have something to discuss young lady." he said suddenly.

She let go of Ollie's collar once he sat down and stopped barking, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. "Excuse me?"

"Hey soldier!"

Willima came jogging up with a somewhat furious look on his face, his friend Epps right behind him.

"What is this?" he asked angrily. "Jessica is not to be summoned to anywhere on this base unless she's going somewhere or Director Galloway or I request it. Not one of our common soldiers! It's dangerous for her in here, and some of this information is classified!" he spat at the soldier in front of him.

"Major Lennox-"

"What is happening here?"

Jess looked behind herself as Optimus and Ironhide walked up, Ironhide's massive arms crossed. Ollie, after his eyes landed on the large, barrel-chested man, whined and rubbed up against his black jean-covered legs before sitting on his feet, between his legs and looked up at him. Ironhide chuckled lowly at him, dropping a hand to rub his palm over his head and stopped to scratch the scruff of his neck, then looked back up at them.

"What is happening here?" he repeated.

"My apologi-"

"Why was Jessica brought here? I was under the impression that she was not allowed in this building unless summoned by Major Lennox's request." Optimus cut the soldier off again.

"I'm aware, however-"

"Do we have a problem here?" Bobby asked.

The soldier, having been cut off multiple times, clenched his fists and the muscle above his eyebrow twitched.

Then, all of the sudden she recognized him. All the giggles and belly tickles, the pillow fights, the blanket forts, the midnight Wal-Mart trips despite the fact that she was five and had school in the morning, the origami, the stories at his bonfires, the Secret-For-Secret trades...

All the yelling and screaming at one o'clock at night, where she lay there on her bed listening to them insult each other again and again. The empty seat at the dinner table on Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, birthdays, and even on her favourite holiday - Christmas. The crying out for him after nightmares, only to realize he wasn't there. The dozens upon dozens of letters and phone calls that were never responded to. The broken promises and sobs when she finally realized he would never - **never **\- come back home.

Her mouth gapped a little and she stepped back away from him without realizing it. He looked over at her with a sorrowful look.

"Dad?" she breathed out.

He gave her a sad smile. "Glad to see you at least remember me." he joked.

Tears flooded her eyes as she swallowed thickly, then continued staring at him in shock. He still looked the same, only older with more wrinkles.

Will's face scrunched up. "You're Mr Robbins? Jessica's father?" he asked.

Her Dad nodded. "Sir! Yes sir."

It was only when someone touched her arm that she realized she was shaking. Ollie whined and rubbed himself against her legs in a comforting manner.

"Jessica, are you alright?" Optimus asked, his grip tightening ever so slightly.

"What I had her called here for is to know why my daughter is here, and not as a soldier?" he asked.

"That's a good question." Jess breathed, her breath shaking, her mind still reeling.

Her Dad furrowed his brow and went to speak but Will cut him off. "Soldier, come with me, I'll explain everything to you pertaining to Jessica and her situation."

Optimus tightened his grip on her arm, taking a step closer and dropping his head to hers. "Would you like me to bring you somewhere?"

Her Dad looked over at her and his eyes narrowed at the man who stood close to his daughter - too close for any Father's liking. She just continued staring at her Father with tears threatning to spill over.

Silently, she nodded at Optimus but didn't move. She just continued staring at her Father.

With a sigh, Optimus's large, warm hand slid over her shoulder, down the length of her arm and then intertwined his fingers with hers as his hand enveloped hers. He squeezed it reassuringly once then pulled her away from the scene.

He opened Captain's passenger side door for her and she climbed in. He closed the door for her and rounded the front of his truck, allowing Ollie to get in and sit on the floor by her feet before getting in on that side himself. However, he didn't drive off right away. He didn't even start the truck.

He just looked over at her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She just stared out the windshield, where her Father had stood before. She'd wanted her Dad to come home **so** _badly_ when she was younger. She'd wish every night before bed that when she woke up in the morning he'd be downstairs making her his famous waffles. She wanted him home, if not to save his relationship and family with his wife then because she asked him to. She sent that man letter after letter after letter about her days in school and grades, but she never got a response. She called him and left him message after message after message, and even got her Mom to buy her a computer with a camera so she could send him countless video chats, all for them to be ignored, disapproved, refused, or left and never responded to. He never showed up, not for birthdays, or Thanksgivings, or Easters, or Halloweens, or even Christmas, and he **knew** she _loved_ Christmas. But all she got herself was tears and disappointment.

"Jessica," Optimus said, touching her arm again. "Are you alright?"

She swallowed the spit that filled her mouth and shook her head; no. She wasn't alright.

A tear tipped over and rolled down her cheek. As if things in this place couldn't get worse.

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as she shook her head faster. Another tear ran down her cheek again before a multitude of others followed as she took a shaky breath in.

With a sigh, Optimus reached out and pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. She let a sob out as it racked through her shoulders, and Optimus rubbed his hand up and down her arm softly.

"It's alright." he mumbled, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "It's okay."

But it wasn't; she knew it wasn't alright, and he did too.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

It was him.

The man who had promised her that he'd be there whenever she needed him, then left and never came back. The same man who almost ruined her and her Mom's life. Here. On this base... where she was forced to stay for who knows how much longer.

The worst part was he had tried to talk to her earlier and she pretended to not be able to hear him, slipping into her room and locking the door. But that meant that now he knew she slept in there, and no doubt would try to talk to her again sometime later.

She wasn't really sure how she was going to avoid him until an idea slipped into her head. So, at ten o'clock that night she took Ollie with her into the cafeteria and looked for William. He sat with his friend Rob - Epps - at a table with three other men.

She headed over quietly and tapped on his shoulder. He looked over.

"Hey, you okay? You should be sleeping." he asked.

She nodded. "Have you seen Optimus?" she asked quietly.

His eyes suddenly became sympathetic as he took her in. She carried herself... differently - her shoulders were slouched and pulled together, her eyes downcast towards the ground and her brows furrowed together to give her a near-constant depressed look. She was shifting her weight uncomfortably and occasionally would look behind her as if expecting someone to come up behind her suddenly.

Will nodded. "Yeah, he and the guys are in Hangar Two." he said.

She huffed - she wasn't allowed in there. Will licked his lips.

"Go on and find him. Nothing classified is going on in there." he said.

She gave him a thankful look. "Thanks." she mumbled.

"You want me to keep watch over Ollie tonight?" Epps asked.

She looked over at him for a second, then nodded. "Thanks." she mumbled.

Epps whistled, then nodded. "'Course. Ollie, here."

The dog, despite it being very hesitant on his end, left Jess's side and over to Rob, and Jess turned and left quickly.

The tar mac was really loud, but Jess drowned the sounds out as she watched her feet move along the pavement, towards the JCS Hangar.

The group of men sat together in a corner, some sitting on their hoods and others standing around. She cast her eyes back down as she did her best to stay quiet on the way over to them.

"Jessica?"

Apparently it took her less time than she thought to get over there, and looked up to lock eyes with Optimus.

He stepped away from the group and closer to her. "Are you alright?"

Her mouth opened and closed slightly a few times, her eyes searching the base when she was unable to form an answer although he knew what she wanted to ask.

He placed a hand on her arm and walked further away from the group, out of everybody's eyes so that she felt much more private.

"Jessica..." he trailed off.

"C-Can-" she took a shaky sigh in to try and recenter herself, "Can I sleep in Captain's cabin tonight?" she asked nervously, her eyes gluing themselves to the ground.

She looked behind her again, her face stitched with worry, her body shaking, her movements quick and erratic, and that was when he saw it in her eyes. She was uncomfortable - she was scared. She was scared that her Dad was going to walk around the corner and head straight over to her. She was worried that he'd try and come near her again.

He said her name again to catch her attention, and she looked over at him quickly, as if scared it was her Dad, for even the slightest second. He placed a hand on her arm in a comforting manner and noticed the way her face scrunched up.

"I-I..." her voice cracked. "I don't want to see him. Ever again. He didn't come home when I-" she cut herself off again, her head hanging so low it almost touched her chest. "He-He sleeps in the barracks beside my room. I know he's gonna try and come talk to me. I don't thi- I ca- I won't be-"

"Yes." Optimus cut her off. "You can rest in Captain's sleeper cabin for as long as you need to, until you feel comfortable enough to go back to your own room. Ollie can accompany you if you wish."

She nodded, tears filling her eyes and her bottom lip quivered. She took in a sharp breath in an attempt to calm down. "Thanks."

He nodded. "Come, I'm about to go put him away anyways."

She nodded and followed him.

He reached the group, walking straight over and opened the door, turning Captain's engine on.

"You alright Jessica?"

She looked over to see Ratchet standing against his Hummer. She nodded silently over at him, passing Ironhide with a quiet "s'cuse me" and over to the passenger side door of Optimus's truck.

"You hittin' the hay, Boss?" Sideswipe asked, sitting beside Sunstreaker and his car.

"I am. I'll see you all in the morning." Optimus said.

Jess opened the door and crawled in quietly, closing the door behind her so gently that she wasn't sure whether or not it really was shut until the lights turned off. Optimus turned the truck on, the engine groaning awake, and Jess ran the tips of her fingers over the interior leather without thinking, feeling the rumble of the engine beneath them.

"The paint is still on?" Optimus asked.

She looked over at him as he pushed down on the gas pedal, the truck beginning to roll forward. "Pardon?" she mumbled.

"The paint that adorns your nails. It is still on?" he asked.

She nodded, looking at them. "Mhm. Guess all those clear coats do pay off." she nodded.

He caught the shiver that ran down her spine, even when she tried to hide it.

"Cold?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No." she denied.

He pulled up to the back of the barracks, stopping Captain right beside the window. She hopped out quickly and rounded the front. Optimus was already busy opening the cabin for her, and she gave him a tight smile as he held the door open.

"Thanks." she mumbled.

"Jessica." he called as she crawled over to where he had laid down the pillows. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She nodded as she sat down. She thought he would just leave, but he pulled himself up into the cabin and sat down beside her. She huffed, her knee hitting his when she stretched her legs out.

"Did you guys get whatever you were looking for on your last mission?" she asked.

The large man furrowed his brow, as if contemplating his response, before he finally nodded. "In a way, I suppose."

Jess chuckled. "What does **that** mean? Oh, by the way - in case you didn't know - it took me close to three hours to clean Captain. And you just let him basically **die** out there."

Optimus laughed. "He was **fine**."

"He looks like you sent him through a car crusher that was just a tiny bit too weak to beat him. Poor Captain."

Optimus didn't laugh. He didn't smile, he made no movements other than to look at her. "Do you honestly, really, truly believe that he is a person?"

She furrowed her brows at him. "Captain?"

"I-he-yes." he nodded.

She nodded, shrugging slightly. "Well yeah. I mean, he is a truck - and inanimate object - but... I don't know. I find every vehicle has a personality. Like, my Mom's old truck was a jerk. He hated me too, used to break down all the time if I was in the car but as soon as I wasn't around he ran like a champ. Where as Dad's Mack truck, he's such a sweetheart. Anybody could drive him whether they have an ACZ or not. And my Jeep, he's very... picky on who he likes. So yeah, Captain's a person. He's - he's very contemplative. It's almost like he overthinks every action you do, and he tries to learn the driver to the point that he predicts what you'll do next. If that makes any sense. He's... different. It's almost like he's more human than most of the other cars around. He matches you pretty well." she shrugged. "He's... complex."

He furrowed his brow, looking out of the door that was still open.

"What?" she asked.

He didn't totally respond to her, he just looked over at her with nothing other than seriousness. She placed a hand on his bicep.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He looked down at her slowly, his eyes flickering between her left and right one quickly. His eyes were beautiful - a bright blue that she had never seen before, that both hid and displayed his emotions. Whenever stuff got serious it was almost as if they turned to stone, throwing a wall up to cloud his emotions - never let anybody get the upper hand. But she noticed something else - when they were in this situation she could read him like a book. Just the two of them, with no one else around, in a private area, it was as if he let his guard down.

She felt his arm muscle flex under her hand, and suddenly the atmosphere was intense between them. They were close together, she could feel his breath fanning over her face, his eyes flickering between hers. He was closer, and as if without thinking her grip tightened on his arm. His breath got closer and then she realized they were only a few centimetres away from each other. She took a sharp breath in through her lips, then his lips were on hers.

It took her a second to register what was going on, and her response was to simply kiss him back, her nails biting softly into the muscles on his arm as she tightened her grip slightly.

It only lasted about six seconds or so before they pulled back, but her hand didn't leave his arm.

About a minute later he spoke.

"Get some rest."

With that, he stood up and left, closing the door behind himself.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

**... ... ... :D. Hope you enjoyed!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hope everybody enjoys this! I'm also super happy with myself for being able to update this early! Please don't forget to review! And I've got a poll on my page, don't forget to vote!**

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

This had to be the hardest decision he'd ever face in his entire life.

A few weeks after he was first appointed Prime he had to make a decision which almost killed four dozen of his troops because it meant the citizens of Iacon would survive a day longer.

He had to choose giving up his old life to help save Cybertron.

He chose to send Sentinel Prime off into space and fight the final battle himself which ultimately ended with Sentinel's death and the destruction of Cybertron, as well as Megatron's escape from the planet and his pursuit of the All Spark.

He had sacrificed citizens, comrades, and himself multiple thousands of times because it meant the mass number of others would survive.

He once surrendered himself and was tortured by Decepticons for three joors because in doing that, he enabled the rest of his Autobots to escape and come back stronger. Three joors of being chained and stabbed, shocked, poked and proded at, punched, kicked. His Autobots eventually found him and brought him home, but he never once gave up a single piece of information to the enemy, no matter what they threatened him with. He was slave to no one; not Megatron, nor Sentinel, nor Primus himself.

He watched what he thought was the love of his life almost die at the hands of Starscream.

He gave up what he thought was the love of his life for the sake of the Autobots, and the greater good.

The things he had done still haunted him at night; the things he had done would haunt any human alive into offlining themselves just to get away from the memories.

But this? Nothing would ever compare to how hard this was for him. How much inner turmoil he felt, the pros that outweighed the cons, and the cons that battled back against the pros with vigour.

To tell or not to tell Jessica about what they really were.

The government had been opposed to her coming to base in the first place, saying that she was a simple civilian of Earth who wasn't asking or offering to be brought into a war that she wasn't currently concerned with. But, by some grace of God or Primus, they managed to get her here. If it was up to Optimus, they would've brought her here the day after he met her. There was that feeling in his tanks - something he had never experienced before. There was an underlying **need** to protect her. To remove her from any and all situations that posed a threat to her safety and health, and hold her as tightly as he could without harm. To just be around her, no matter what they were doing.

Even Orion Pax had never felt something like this before. With Arial, yeah they had loved each other, but when he became Optimus Prime and she was turned into Elita One they grew apart. Elita turned into more of a trusted comrade. The love they shared had slowly disappeared until one day it was nonexistent. They came to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't meant to be. It discouraged him at first - back on Cybertron it was every mechling and femmeling's dream to have a family... to find your perfect match. He and Arial had been together for so long without problem or complaint that he just assumed it was her. After he found out it wasn't, he didn't think he'd ever find that one femme. So instead he gave himself to the Autobot cause, looking for ways to end or fix the war. After he and his team left Cybertron for Earth he completely wiped the even idea from his processor of finding and starting a family. That was simply a thought he'd left behind eons upon eons ago, back home as a young Prime.

The day they met hadn't been important to him at first - it had started out hard anyways. The youngest set of twins were beginning to complain yet again about how they couldn't return home. Optimus was on his wits' end with those two. Major Lennox had been wanting to go for a visit to his family's place of residence, but after a Decepticon was spotted and an Energon detector was triggered not too far from his home town, Optimus thought it best that he and Ironhide accompany him, at least for a little while. Sideswipe was meant to come in Optimus's place so that he could return and keep watch over the base once the frontliner returned from his recon mission. But then he walked through that door, into the Lennox's household and suddenly that day became one of the most important days of his life.

Something about those _beautiful_ blue eyes made his spark dance and something in his tanks groan. He loved the way the hazel flecks in her eyes seemed to glow gold when she smiled, or how she got two very miniscule dimples on her cheeks when she laughed. He adored the way she always worried for everybody else and their safety, and how she was willing to give something up to make something else better for someone. He admired the way that - despite the fact that he **knew** she detested it here - she always put on a smile around others on base and greeted everyone she passed; he respected the way she did everything in her power to not dump all of her problems and thoughts unto anyone and instead tried to deal with it herself privately - but he didn't want her to. He wanted her to go to him with everything and let him help solve all of her problems.

He wanted to lay with her at the end of the day and feel the tension in her shoulders slowly disappear until she lay slack beside him. He wanted to be the first one she saw in the morning - to be the one she retold all of her dreams to. He wanted to be the one she ran to when she was sad and crying, and be able to feel her shift around on his bench as they sat together in the corner of the base, talking about everything and anything.

He didn't even care that she was human - that didn't matter to him. He'd spend every waking second in his holoform if it meant being close to her. To be able to safely put his hands on her, to hold her as close as physically possible, to take away all of her fear and pain, and leave her with nothing but comfort and safety.

He'd protect her from everything. From Decepticons, from her Dad, from her own thoughts. Pit, he didn't even care that she was a liability when it came to Decepticons. He knew she was in danger because of it - because of him. Had she never met him, she'd be at home safe. She'd probably have Ollie and her own tractor trailer, cruising down the highway with a load behind them, headed for who-knows-where. She'd be happy and doing what she loved. Ollie would have his head hanging out the window, his tongue flopping around in the wind. The radio would be blasting and she'd be tapping her hands on the driving wheel along to the beat of the song that was on, like she did whenever she drove him, and belting out the lyrics to the song as loud as she could. She'd call her parents every once or twice a week just to check in with them. But she'd be **happy** doing what she loved - and safe. She'd be living her dream. She'd be safe from all the dangers he brought with him.

But he was willing to be her literal shield. He was more than willing to stand in front of her and fend off Decepticon after Decepticon if it meant afterwards she was safe.

He'd be anything - _anything_ \- she wanted.

He'd give up the Matrix of Leadership for her.

He'd give up the title of Prime for her.

He'd give up his life for her. His _life_.

_***(* Optimus Prime. To my Med Bay. Now. *)***_ Ratchet sent over the public comm link.

With a silent chuckle, Optimus took a deep sigh in as he started his engine up and drove out of his corner. Ratchet had been running system checks on all of his Autobots all day, and to say they were giving him a hard time would be an understatement.

_***(* Copy that, I shall be right in. *)***_ he sent back as he began moving across the tar mac.

Jessica wasn't around; after she woke up, she left and seemed to disappear completely - most likely a mechanism she came up with to stay away from and avoid her father. He hadn't been... all too welcoming of the idea of his only daughter being forced to stay here, and even less enthusiastic when he learned that she was meant to be the perfect match for a thirty foot, metal alien that was taking refuge on this planet. In fact, it would be easier to say he had been enraged. He attempted to say that she must go home now, but since her Mother was her primary caretaker, his attempts were rendered mute. He then attempted to say that, since she was a regular civilian and much of the information here was classified to almost top secret, she was no longer allowed contact with the Prime or any of his soldiers. However, since Optimus signed a contract with the human government that stated the terms and conditions of her stay were only viable so long as she continued to pose as an aid to Optimus Prime himself, which she currently was, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The man then chose to spit a few rather rash words towards the Autobot leader before storming out of the room.

He pulled into the Med Bay and waited until the door shut to transform up. Ratchet came out of a back room in bipedal mode and nodded at him.

"Evening." he said.

"Greetings. I see you have almost finished all of your checks." Optimus smiled as he sat down.

Ratchet nodded as his scanner whirred to life. "Indeed, Optimus. Though the work never truly ends."

The Prime chuckled. "That I can relate to, my old friend."

Ratchet chuckled, but he didn't miss the waver in Optimus's optic, or he way he fidgeted slightly and his optic ridges furrowed.

"What are you thinking of, Prime?" he asked.

"Nothing of importance."

Ratchet snorted. "I may not be a Prime, but I am not a naive sparkling. Something is prominent and nagging at you in that processor of yours. What is it?"

Optimus sighed. "I wish not to burden you with my th-"

"Optimus Prime." Ratchet interuppted with a stern expression on his face.

The flame painted bot huffed. "It's this situation with Jessica. I feel as though it is time to introduce her to our real selves, but I do not know how this will be working out, how she will react or what she will want. I barely know what is going on with this, and I'm worried that..." he trailed off without finishing.

The look in Optimus Prime's optics could have been enough to bring Ratchet to his knees with pity; it was a look that made you want to give the mech everything and anything you had in order to help him. It was not faked or genuine, it was pure, true confusion, anxiety, worry, and fear.

He sighed, then did something he had not done in a long, long time; he did not use the name Optimus, nor even the name Prime towards him.

"Orion," he started, "my old friend. No one on this base can possibly know what's going to happen. No one on this Earth, or even in this universe can know. This has never been seen before - inter-planetary, cross species intimate relationships? Only Primus himself knows how this will play out simply because **he** set this up. He did this for a reason, Orion. You must have faith that it will all work out alright. Not even I myself know how this whole thing with Jess will play out, and we're _all_ hoping for the best. You must have faith in Primus's plan, Orion."

The taller bot's air intakes hissed as they repressurized on their own again. Optimus's eyes flicked around for a single, brief moment before looking over where Ratchet stood in front of the counter, a wrench in hand.

"Ratchet, I-"

He stopped and debated on his next words, and whether or not they should be said, but Ratchet (outside of Ironhide) was one of his oldest, closest friends before and during the war. He could trust him.

"Ratchet, I'm scared."

Ratchet looked at him with total and complete seriousness. The last time he'd heard those words from that mech, Orion Pax had just been turned into Optimus Prime. He was new to leadership, and having the weight of the world - literally - balanced in his hands, on his shoulders, through his choices proved to be much more pressure on him than it was on Sentinel Prime. He took to talking to Ratchet often as a way to gain his confidence before he was ready to take on the Autobots alone, as his own.

"I do not know what to do next; I feel as though if we tell Jess it will either go very well, or very badly. But I fear that it may be the latter, and that is the last thing I would ever wish for. I fear she will get hurt or worse from all of this, and I honestly... I do not know what I'll do without her. Losing Arial was different - I did not feel this..."

Unable to find the words to express himself, he simply let his shoulders sag and his head hang as his optics landed on the ground.

Ratchet's eyes filled with pity and his eyebrows furrowed.

In all his years working and fighting side by side with Optimus Prime, he had never seen him like this before.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

"Would Jessica Robbins please report to the Tar Mac, thank you."

Jess almost screamed - how many times was she going to be summoned somewhere, this was the third time in two weeks. Could she not just be left alone?

Ollie barked as he got up from the ground and followed her as she stood up off her bed and out of her room. She slammed the door behind the two of them and stomped out onto the Tar Mac, looking around. How was she supposed to know where to go when there was everybody,_ everywhere_?!

"Jess." Will said as he approached. "Come with me."

With an almost surprised expression at the stern tone in his voice, Jess and Ollie followed the man across the tar mac, then froze as he entered a hangar.

He turned and looked behind him. "Coming?"

"I can't, I'm- this is restricted to-"

"I'm aware. But come." he said.

With a gulp, she took a tentative step forward and followed him into the base.

What she didn't expect was for Optimus to be standing there, along with Bobby Epps, Director Galloway, and a few soldiers carrying weapons (which didn't help her discomfort). Ratchet, Ironhide, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Mirage, Jolt, and the triplets Elita One, Chromia, and Arcee's vehicles were all parked in the back.

She immediately got worried - what was going to happen?

Optimus walked closer. "Jess."

She immediately blushed, looking down.

He grabbed her shoulder, then placed a curled index finger under her chin to move her head up to make eye contact.

"I have something I wish to show you. I am aware this is sudden, but we have deemed it necessary at this point in your stay." he said quietly.

She gulped again.

He hesitated, seeing that look in her eyes, before stepping back. He took a deep sigh in.

He released the holoform, the human version of himself disappearing into a flurry of sparkles before nothing stood where he was.

Her eyes went wide as she took a single step back out of shock.

He drove up, stopping a safe distance from her that way she wouldn't get hurt. Her eyes got slightly wider, but she continued to not say anything, although her lips did part from shock. A hiss escaped from his grill, anxious and nervous for her reaction.

With a final sigh, he activated the transformation sequence. His gears whirred as he stood, unfolding from the truck form he adorned a few seconds ago. His vents hissed as his oxygen tanks repressurized, and the tires on the back of his legs stopped and stabilized themselves. He looked down at her; her mouth was closed, but she was physically shaking, as if her whole body was a tremor. Much to his dismay, tears welled up in her eyes.

"Jessica." he called quietly.

She sucked in a sharp breath as the tears managed to escape from the barriers of her eyelids, and her shaking seemed to get worse, as if hearing his voice and confirming it was him made it ten times worse for her. She didn't look up at him, she didn't say anything to him; it was as if she didn't have a reaction.

Then - unexpected to him - she turned and looked at Major Lennox and Director Galloway. She opened her mouth and spoke towards Thedore Galloway.

Something he didn't **ever** want to hear.

"Director Galloway?"

Her voice was shaking.

"Yes, Miss Robbins?" the older man asked.

She let out a shaky breath again.

"I want to go home."

And just like that, his entire world went shattering around him. Someone's servo was wrapped around his Spark and her sentence made whoever it was squeeze the last drops of life from it.

"Miss Robbins, I apologize but-"

"_My_ apologies, but whether you approve of my departure or not, I'm leaving." her voice wavered.

"Jess-" Lennox started.

"As soon as possible, please." she said, then walked around them and out of the hangar, Ollie on her heels.

**_X-X-X-X-X-X-X_**

**You all either really love me or really hate me at this point, haha. First the cliffhanger, now this XD Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review everybody!**


	15. Chapter 15

**GOOD MORNING EVERYBODY! **

**Most of you probably hate me right now XD**

**Yes, technically I am updating at night, but it's late right now so I know most won't read it until the following morning, which is why I'm starting with a good morning :) I hope everybody's day is as wonderful as every single one of you are! I'm not going to lie, I laughed so hard reading all of your reactions to the last chapter, hehe. **

**But, none the less, I hope everybody enjoys this chapter, although you may not, but that's up to you guys, not me so either way, I hope you read it. Please don't forget to review!**

**Just a little side note here, when I say the Pit (or just Pit), I mean the Cybertronian version of Hell. When I say to the Pit**_**s**_**, I'm refering to the Gladitorial Pits of Kaon. The difference is in the 's' :)**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Will ordered for her to go home the day after, that way she could pack, get all of her things together, and sign papers that would allow her release. They made it sound like she was a criminal. Really, she knew he was hoping that she'd reconsider. But when she was paged the next morning, she placed all of her bags in the small plane, then turned for the goodbyes as Ollie hopped in and laid down in the back.

Will was there and the first to trap her in a hug, asking her to say hi to Sarah and Annie for him and that he'd visit soon too. Theodore Galloway was there to give his goodbyes to the young girl, only after he had her sign a contract that in essence said Jess promised not to say anything to anyone about anything that happened to her here or anybody she met here. She signed it more than willingly since that meant she could go home. Bobby Epps came running over from across the tar mac. He swooped her into a hug, promising that he'd come visit with Will, saying she'd have to take him for a ride in the Jeep.

Just as he began retelling some silly story, the last one she'd hear for a little while, she happened to look over to the corner of the barracks. A brighty coloured, red and blue flame painted Peterbilt sat quietly, its headlights - _**his **_headlights - staring in their direction. She almost shivered.

A disturbing thought entered her brain - that meant that those... those things were **right** _outside_ her bedroom. While she was studying, schooling, sleeping, they just sat there. Listening to her, watching her. Could that mean that those codenames... were those their real names? Did robots even need names? She thought people just gave robots manufacturing numbers, like Robot 01765. Apparently not. And when they referred to them as "their" cars, they were lying. Those weren't their cars, those were them!

That meant Captain was-

Captain didn't exsist. Captain was a lie. Captain was gone.

There was no Captain. Not anymore.

Ollie barked, pulling her attention over to where he sat, waiting for her to climb in. She smiled up at Will one last time, and he hugged her tightly.

"Safe fly kid." he said into her hair. "Can you do me a favour and give this to Sarah? I could mail it to her but you're the faster option."

He handed her a sealed envelope, most likely a letter, and pressed a kiss into her hairline, as if she was his child who was flying off to her first year of University.

Then she pulled back with a tight smile and climbed up into the plane, taking her seat.

That flight was by far the worst. With the C-17s, the knowledge of being that high bothered her, but didn't scare her. But in the little plane that she was brought back in, it was glass around... she could see how high up they were. Her acrophobia kicked in and she began hyperventilating. The pilot had to give her three Nyquil, which knocked her out long enough until they had reached the ground.

Jess's parents were there waiting for her at the airport beside Mrs Lennox and Annabelle, who adorned a little purple tutu along with her favourite black tank top and leggings. When her eyes landed on the large dog who walked beside her on a leash, and the blue eyes girl, she shrieked excitedly and ran towards them.

Since she and Ollie had flown in on one of those miniplanes and not a passenger airline, he hadn't needed to travel in a crate, and a simple ID tag check showed them that he did indeed have his vaccines so he had been allowed to just walk with her.

"Jessy!" Annabelle cheered as the older girl dropped Ollie's leash and fell to her knees, catching her in her arms. "I missed you Jessy!"

Jess shoved her nose into the young child's hair and took a large sigh in the smell her shampoo. God, she missed that smell.

"I missed you too, Annie." she mumbled. When Anna pulled back from the hug, Ollie yipped at her. She smiled and squealed as she wrapped her arms around the Great Dane's neck.

"I missed you too Ollie." she said.

Jess stood up to lock eyes with her Mom, who had tears threatning to spill over on her cheeks.

"Mom." she whispered as she jogged over and wrapped her arms around her Mom's torso.

Her Mom engulfed her in a hug. "My baby girl."

And just like that, everything was alright. It was as if she was seven years old again, a defenseless little girl, and in Mommy's arms were the safest place in the world. They kept all the horrors out, all the dangers away, and every problem suddenly wasn't nearly as bad as before because her Mom was there to help her deal with them. Her Mom's arms were always the safest place in the world. They were warmth, safety, comfort.

They were everything she needed them to be because it was the one person who was always there. It was her Mom.

A tear slipped down Jess's cheek as she shoved her face into her Mom's shoulder; her Mom had always been just a **little** bit taller, and Jess used to wish she'd grow taller, but it never happened.

"I missed you Mommy." she whispered.

Her Mom's arms tightened as she began crying too. "I missed you so much, baby girl."

When Jess pulled back her Mom wiped the tears off her face with her thumbs and placed a long kiss on her forehead.

Then her eyes drifted over to her step-Dad and she smiled. The tall man smiled at her and moved forward and Jess hugged him hard. He placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"We missed you." he whispered to her and she squeezed him tighter, breathing in his cologne. **God** she loved the smell of his Obsession cologne.

Mrs Lennox was next to hug her. When the two girls pulled back, Sarah smiled tightly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Welcome home, sweetie."

She gave her a smile back, wondering if she knew about... what **they** were or not.

"Thanks." she murmured, rubbing the tears from her eyes.

Ollie yipped at her, and she collected his leash from off the ground, the tutu wearing four year old already perched on his back.

"Come on," her Mom said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder."Let's get you home."

She smiled and nodded at her, heading towards the baggage claim.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Her parents had brought the Jeep with them which led to another crying fit for Jess: to even see the Jeep in person for the first time in over half a year made her unbelievably happy. Annabelle threw a hissy fit before her Mom allowed her to go driving with Jess. They stopped in a Jubilee's Diner to pick her up food since she was starving, and Annabelle thoroughly enjoyed when she put the roof down. They all ate dinner at Erin and Harry's house, then Jess offered to drive Annabelle and her Mom home. Their new house was beautiful - on the outside at least. They had a new porch that had a large, family swing, two chairs and even a Barbie play set that was open with the play toys laying on the porch.

It looked much nicer than before. However, the night followed close behind. Jess, by some miracle, managed to remember to give Sarah the letter from Will, before she said her good byes and went straight home, only to sleep for sixteen whole hours.

When Jess was seven, her and her Mom moved cities. They used to live in fairly large town just thirty minutes from Massachusetts, where you knew maybe three or four people on your street, but all the kids (despite not knowing each other) got together after dinner to play road hockey, or, on PA days, the boys would play tackle football and the girls would cheer them on. But after the divorce went through, and Erin gained full custody over Jessica, the mother decided it was time for a change. So they packed up and moved hours upon hours away from everything the bright blue eyed girl knew.

On Jess's first day here, since they moved in the middle of the school year, the poor girl knew no one in her class. Despite the hesitation and fear that her Mom knew was riddled thoughout the little girl's brain, the seven year old still woke up that morning, ate her breakfast, grabbed her backpack and headed out to the bus 'like a big girl would'. Her first day there, she remanied reserved and quiet, opting for reading her books in the corner on her own rather than socializing with the loud kids that all knew each other well. That was, until a brown, wide eyed, red haired, bouncy girl came bounding over to her side. When Jessica adressed her with a hello, the girl continued staring at her without a word, so Jess went back to reading her book. Within that same minute, the red head lifted a finger and poke Jess in her cheek five times before introducing herself as, "Sam. NOT Samara, just Sam". From there, the friendship between Samara and Jessica blossomed. On Sam's thirteenth birthday they made a promise to each other that they would never make each other cry. Whether it be a boy who came in between them, because they were annoyed by each other, **whatever** it was, they promised each other that one would never do anything that made the other one cry. For as long as they had been close, they had never broken that promise.

Of course, they were thirteen. Everything to them was still black and white, they weren't thinking about circumstances, or potentials, what-ifs. They certainly didn't consider if the tears happened to be happy tears.

Jessica was now able to say she was the first to break that promise. The two ladies hadn't spoken in close to a month, and Jess hadn't informed Sam of her return so when she showed up on the red haired girl's doorstep the next day, Samara broke down into tears faster anything she'd seen. This led to thirty minute bout of the two of htem bawling, followed by the two girls sitting on the floor of Sam's house, tossing popped popcorn kernels at each other and attempting to catch them in their mouths, laughing like losers and listening to old reruns of Friends that played uselessly on the TV behing Jess.

"So what did they want from you?" she asked eventually.

Jessica sighed. "Sorry S, I'm not legally allowed to tell anybody."

The girl huffed. "That **sucks**. Not even your best friend? What about your Mom? She's gotta be legal to know."

Jess shook her head. "Nobody. I could be charged with treason if I tell anybody, anything. I'm sorry."

Sam huffed. "Not your fault, they're the ones who took you in the first place." she shrugged.

Jess gave her a tight smile. "I know, but I could've put up a bigger fight." she pointed out.

Sam gave her a pointed look and a raised eyebrow. "They would've **made** sure you went if you had resisted more, Jess. You know that."

Jess sighed, nodding as she looked out the window. "I know."

Sam was silent for a second, simply popping another kernel into her mouth, then looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

Jess looked away from the window, back over to the fiery red head. "Hm?"

"Your..." the young friend pointed in Jess's direction, then to her own chest, in between her two breasts. "Chest. Something wrong, you feeling alright?" she finished.

Jess hadn't even realized that she'd raised a hand to rub her sternum in an attempt to numb pain - no, not pain. This was more of a... discomfort. Like, a shoe that fit too tightly, except around her breast bone. It wasn't so much overwhelming as much as it was just a pain in the butt to put up with. She shook her head.

"No, sorry. I'm fine." she smiled.

The pain never seemed to leave.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Optimus couldn't really call it a pain - not yet anyways, though he knew that was coming up quickly. No, it was more just... uncomfortable. Like, he was - as humans might put it - ten pouds of sugar in a five pound sack. Like his spark had grown exponentially in two days to the point where his spark casing was half the appropriate size that it should be. It was just... uncomfortable, that was the only way he could describe it.

The problem was he knew the discomfort would soon, very soon, be pain. As Prime, he couldn't afford that. He needed to be in **prime **condition **(A/N: that may or may not be my sad attempt a pun ;) )**. Her needed to be ready for deployment and combat at any given second. He needed to be a rock - a _pillar_ \- for his soldiers to be able to lean on, he needed to be the "who" that his mechs - and even the femmes - looked up to in times of despair, depression, need. He needed to be strong. And if he was constantly in pain, he wouldn't be able to do that. How could they possibly look up to him if he was writhin in pain, or intoxicated to the Pit and back off pain killers from Ratchet just to numb the pain for even a minute of relief? How could his soldiers go on a mission given to them by their leader with confidence, if their leader couldn't even look over the mission plan and agree that it was safe?

He knew what would happen. They'd be taken advantage of; his mechs would have to bend to the commands, demand, and mercy of the human government if he couldn't even stand up.

They needed a solution - fast! A solution they had yet to come up with.

"Prime!"

Blue optics looked over to lock with a diffeent set of blue optics. Ironhide sat across from him, twirling the fusion cannon in his hands. The weapon would spin quickly until the barrel got hot and orange, then he'd stop before it could fire a bullet into the wall. In front of him lay a pile of other weapons, as well as his cleaing tools. Beside him, Sideswipe sat with a collection of blades in pile in front of him. He had two blades held delicately in his large hands, and he was busy sharpening them.

"Yes?"

Ironhide smiled as he spun his energon blaster, and Sideswipe chuckled to him, running the blades against each other again, causing sparks to go flying through the air and land on the cement, only to die out soon after.

"You've been starin' at the same place on that wall for the past ten minutes." Ironhide said, picking up a rag and dipping it in the polish. "What's goin' on?"

The Prime shook his head. "Do not fret, Ironhide, I am fine."

The black mech snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"How ya feelin', Boss Bot?" Sideswipe asked.

"I **am** ok, mechs. There is no need for worry." he reassured, pulling his energon swords from their compartment.

"Yeah, sure." Ironhide repeated in disbelief. "That's why you were pushing so hard on your spark casing that your spark should've popped like a balloon filled with too much helium."

He hadn't even realized that he hand a hand pressed into his chest as a way to ease the discomfort - a way that ultimately failed.

Sideswipe looked over at Ironhide with an amused smile. "How'd you come up with that?" he asked.

The old mech shrugged. "Internet."

The silver frontliner snorted as another group of bots walked in.

"Would you two leave Optimus alone? He's Prime, if he wants your help, he'll ask." Chromia chastised as she walked over to stand beside Ironhide. The weapons specialist wrapped an arm around her waist, grabbing her hip and pulled her closer to him. She smiled, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other came up to rest on his helm. She leaned down and pressed a kiss into the top of his helm. "Hi."

He grunted at her in response.

Despite the fact that he knew it was immature and childish, Optimus couldn't stop the pang of jealousy that flooded his system.

There was a series of _'clang'_s as Sunstreaker dropped his blades into the same pile where Sideswipe had all his dull ones, awaiting to be sharpened. There was only really two details to help you tell which blades were Sideswipe's and which ones were Sunstreaker's: Sideswipe's blades were a little smaller width wise and Sunstreaker's were thicker by half a centimetre, and Sideswipe's had an _'S'_ permanently carved into each side of blade in both English and in traditional Kaonian. The golden mech pulled two blades from their compartments, and began sharpening them as well.

"Evening Optimus, how are you?" Arcee asked as she passed him.

He smiled down at her. "Salutations, Arcee. I'm well, and you?"

She smiled, nodding. "Not too shabby, thanks for asking."

He nodded at her as she stopped at the closet, pulling out her ion blasters' cleaning supplies as Mirage moved to sit in front of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, pulling his spring blades from their hiding spot on the side of his arms and began polishing them.

"Where are the other twins?" Optimus asked.

Mirage shrugged. "Last time I saw them, Ratchet was lecturing them on why they can't be so reckless around the humans."

Optimus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Of course.

When were those two not a problem for him?


	16. Chapter 16

**Voila friends! Chapter 16. This one is looong too, longer than most of my chapters for this story anyways! I hope you guys enjoy it! Don't forget to drop a review!**

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

The base was unusually quiet, Will noticed. Not that it was calm or anything, there was always people bustling to and fro, hurrying to get somewhere, finish that report, hand that briefing in, run to the upcoming meeting, rush to the barracks to take a shower or take a nap. It was always busy here.

But it was almost never this quiet. People didn't seem to be laughing as much. The short brunnette that most people encountered on their way to go where ever or do whatever was no longer there to greet them with a smile and a nod as they passed each other. The dog beds were missing from their usual spots in the training rooms (now they were stored away somewhere). The table in the cafeteria that was always occupied by a small girl with bright blue eyes on one side and a black and white horse-dog laying beside her was now empty and made the cafeteria seem sadder, not as busy. He still had yet to see people sit there - it just stayed there, untouched. There was no howl-like laughing from me of the younger recruits as they drove or rode across the tar mac in a cart with a large Great Dane chasing after them, his tongue flapping in the wind. Sideswipe couldn't be found sitting with Dino and their new human friend, the three of them teasing each other or having races down by the track.

The place was still _loud_. There was still fights that broke out, yelling, laughing, running, people, panics to get where you needed to go, but it was still quieter somehow. He didn't know, maybe the more correct term was lonelier. Yeah, that was better.

The base was lonelier now that Jess and Ollie had departed.

It wasn't like they **wanted** her to go, they technically didn't. Had she demaned to leave to literally _**anybody**_else, they probably could've told her no, then calmed her down, rationalized with her and eventually she would have stayed. Optimus had explained himself well, and Ratchet had been quite vigilant about it. The Call or whatever they called it, where a Prime finds the one he was meant to be with... apparently it was serious stuff, and with what Will had witness thus far, it was. You could already see the sorrow in the Prime's eyes, or the pain on his face - well, kind of pain. It didn't look too bad, but you could tell he wasn't feeling the best. Ratchet had explained that the fact that they hadn't been all to intimate was hard enough on Optimus, but the mere fact that she was now thousands of miles away from him was most likely causing him pain. Like, actual, physical pain. On top of that, apparently his spark-thingy or whatever took her wanting to leave as a rejection, which would (according to the private chat he had with only Ratchet) cause Optimus a crippling amount of pain in a short amount of time. No, in accordance to whatever the **hell** had happened to Optimus's spark or whatever that thing was called, she really, really should have had to stay. He said the Prime Call was as much of a blessing as it was a curse.

They knew it was a moral termoil for the large bot, because the last thing he wanted was for her to be unhappy here, and it was obvious that she wanted nothing to do with the base. Like, for God's sake, the bot's life motto was basically _"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"_. But damn it all if he'd let her go.

But she hadn't. She hadn't demanded to leave to Will, nor Epps, nor Optimus. No, she'd demanded it to Theodore Galloway.

That man's main goal since the girl's arrival seemed to be to find a viable reason why she had to go home, or a loop hole in the contract Optimus had signed to send her back. He hated the Autobots to begin with, and after Jess his hatred (and he had no doubts or hesitation to say the little man did in fact **hate** them) just grew. So when she basically offered -more than willingly - for Galloway to get what he wanted, the National Security Advisor jumped at the opportunity.

Letting her go, though, seemed to be at a cost though. A cost that would soon affect the health of Autobot team, and the safety of (quite literally) the whole world.

"Major Lennox!"

The short haired man turned to look at who was calling him. The young boy probably in his early to mid twenties, gestured behind him. "Your wife and daughter are calling for a video chat."

A smile creeped onto his face as he got off his chair and followed him out of the room.

The face of his beautiful wife was already on the computer screen, and upon entering the camera's frame she smiled at the sight of him.

"Aye, there's my beautiful girl." he smiled at her, pulling a chair over to sit in front of the computer screen, adjusting the camera. "Oh my god, look at that living room, its beautiful! How long did it take to get the house up?"

She giggled. "Not long, we got a lot of help, and the insurance wasn't a hassle. We had the frame up like that." she snapped her fingers.

He smiled. "Good."

"Is that Daddy?!" a high pitched voice yelled fom the bckground.

"Yeah, come say hi Annie!"

A little head of blonde hair came zipping down the stairs and skidded to a stop in front of the camera, waving excitedly.

"Hi Daddy!"

"Hey baby girl." he smiled.

"How are you daddy?" she asked excitedly, a wide smile showing her one big girl tooth that was starting to come in.

"I'm good sweetie, what about you? You and mommy doing alright?"

His little girl smiled even wider. "Yeah, we're great! Mommy got a raise at work, and I got an A+ on my first test!" she cheered.

He clapped his hands, smiling wide. "That's my smart girl!"

Annabelle's smile widened, which he didn't know was physially possible, proud of herself. "That's me!"

"That is you." he laughed, then refocused his attention to Sarah. "Did Jess get home okay?"

Her smile dropped a little, but she nodded. "Yeah, her and Ollie got home fine. I think Erin said she's going to school for another year, she seems to be okay so far, but it's only been a few weeks so we'll see how it plays out."

He nodded, "Good."

"Is he okay?" Sarah asked.

Will sighed, running his hand over the top of his head. "No, not really. I know he's in pain, you see it everytime you look at his face, but she wanted to leave and she just happened to tell the perfectly **wrong** person that she wanted to leave."

"Who?" Anna asked.

"He was **more** than happy to let her leave. _He_, on the other hand, I just... I don't know what we're gonna do."

"Who?" Annie asked.

"Do you have any idea what will happen?" Sarah asked.

He shook his head. "Not a single clue. When two humans go on a break, it hurts emotionally, but he is in literal, physical pain. I just... I dunno."

"Who?!" Annie finally yelled.

"Annabelle!" Sarah scolded.

Will, instead, laughed. "Don't worry Annie. It's just Optimus. Ever since Jess went back home, Optimus has been hurting."

The little girl gasped. "Will he be okay?"

Will sighed again. "I don't know, baby girl."

He happened to look over the top of the computer, taking note of the leader in question who came driving in. He was going slow, obviously his engine sounding old and in rough shape. It took him maybe a whole minute and a half before he entered Ratchet's Med Bay.

Will sighed again. "I don't know."

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Do you know what it's like to have your whole reality changed? To go from one day having everything completely perfectly normal, to questioning every single thing you know - **knew** \- because of one single event? From having a perfectly normal life, to having your entire reality bent in such a way that you can't even comprehend what's real and what's a lie? To feel like you can't trust what you see, or even your gut instinct because you know that there's even the slightest of chances that your gut instinct is in fact wrong, and it's all a complete lie.

Jess did. Less then a year ago **(A/N: just some grammar help 'cos I'm blanking right now, would it be then or than?)**, she was a normal teenager, she had a job lined up for her, a future, a _life_. Today? Today she was scared. She was scared that the school bus that sat in her neighbhor's yard would stand up, or the if the Toyota Corolla she stopped next to at the red light would start talking to her suddenly.

Nothing was the same, not anymore.

The person who worked at the gas station, with blue eyes that could pigment three other people's iris', he could be fake.

The feeling on the back of her neck that something was following or watching her? What if something is? Like that little beatbox that the guy was carrying down the road - since cars could transform, her brain reasoned, why couldn't other things like that?

Or that cop car from the local PD that was always parked in Jubilee's parking lot, watching the roads. One day, what if **it** decided to stand up?

To say she was on edge would be an understatement - Jess was _fucking_ **terrified**.

"Annabelle c'mon! I'm gonna be late sweetie!"

"Coming Jessy!"

...

"I don't see your little butt coming down the stairs!"

Sarah giggled from her spot on the couch as the four year old finally trotted down the stairs sporting a pair of black leggings and and a pink top with the silhouette of a ballerina on it, alongside her pink shoes that lit up everytime she took a step. She had her backpack hoisted up on her two shoulders, and her bouncy blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, the strands of hair curled in loose springs.

Jess just **knew** Annabelle would grow up to be a beautiul teenager.

"Ready Jessy!"

"Say bye to your Mom, we gotta go." she ushered.

The little girl ran over to her Mom, who was already waiting for her with open arms.

"I'll see you when I get off work." she promised.

"Okie." the little girl said, letting go of her Mom and bounding over to her babysitter.

"Bye Mrs Lennox!" Jess called behind her as the two exited the house.

"See ya, Jess!" the older woman waved off.

Annabelle ran out of the house and over to the Jeep excitedly, trying to pull the door open herself but just barely coming short of reaching it. Jess chuckled lightly at her, pulling it open for her instead, and she scrambled inside with a thanks.

As Jess shut the door behind her, the pain in her chest that had first shown up with Sam and hadn't left yet, pulsed and she groaned, pushing on her chest. Pushing on her breast bone seemed to relieve some of the pressure, so she kept her hand to her chest as she rounded the car and got in on the other side.

"Jessy, are you okay?" Annabelle asked as the brunnette settled in her seat.

She smiled at her in the rear view mirror, looking at the reflection of the little girl. "I'm fine, Bellie, don't worry."

"Okay." the little kid chirped, looking out the windows as she kicked her feet happily.

Jess saw the action in the rear view mirror, smiling at the girl's actions. God, she missed this kid while she was gone. Jess still couldn't believe what she'd seen there.

Optimus... he... he was a robot. Then what the hell was that human form thingy he had? It wasn't hologram, holograms aren't solid. And holograms' muscles aren't nearly as nice as his were. She still wondered about them sometimes. The code names all made sense now. What didn't makes sense was why the United States Army was either building or importing robots.

Actually, none of this made any sense at all, but it wasn't like Jess had any experience to speak.

_Yeah, you only __**kissed**__ one. _she thought to herself angrily as she turned down a different road.

She did kind of a miss them though. Granted, she was always bored over there, but she still expected to see Sideswipe's ca- Sideswipe come ripping around the corner with Mirage on his tail. Or everytime Ollie whined, she figured it was because Ironhide's human form had just walked near them. And everytime she felt her stomach flip flop (which seemed to be happening frequently) she thought for sure that two seconds later Optimus would say her name to catch her attention. Even listening to Bobby joke around as he and Will, and a few others she'd learned the names of like Graham, Terrence, Olivia, and Francine, sat around the table at dinner together. Now, sititng with her parents was bland and... boring, to be frank. And she'd been home for only five days.

"Jessy, why'd you come home?" Annabelle asked.

"Pardon?" Jessica asked, turning into Annabelle's school parking lot.

"Well, Daddy says your important to Oppie."

"Oppie?" Jess asked.

"Mhm. Him and I'onhide are really close."

Then, it dawned on her. "You mean Optimus?"

"Mhm." the blonde girl nodded. "Mommy and me talked to Daddy a few nights ago over video chat. Daddy says you're important to Oppie, and that you leaving wasn't good for him or for you. So why'd you go?"

Jess smiled at her slightly, kissing the girls head. "Because I was scared. They told me some stuff that really... scares me, and I wasn't okay with staying there anymore. And they showed me some things that..." she trailed off.

"But they're nice." Annabelle said looking at her head.

"Yeah, they can be. But I told you Annie, I am... **really** scared of what I saw. I couldn't stay there." she shook her head.

"Do you miss them?" the little blonde girl asked.

She thought about it sometimes; she did. Well, some of them.

"Kind of, yeah. Sometimes"

The child nodded. "Daddy says Oppie misses you too."

Jess smiled. "Well, I guess I miss him a little too, but don't worry, nothing bad will happen. I mean, look at me. Does it look like anything bad has happened?"

The little girl giggled. "No."

"See? I'm fine now, and I'll still be fine later." she reassured. "Don't worry about me. Go enjoy your day, I'll pick you up afterwards."

"Okay. Have fun at big girl school." Annabelle called as she climbed out, then she shut the door behind her and ran past the fence and over to her group of friends that were gathering.

Jess smiled as she watched the girl go, then backed up out of her spot and over to her school, using one hand to drive.

The other was pressed into her chest to stop the pain.

Sam came back for another year as well in order to get a few marks of hers up. They were good, but they weren't **great** so she wanted to make them better. She'd been ecstatic when she found out that her best friend was doing the same.

She parked in the same spot, walked through the same halls, passed the same lockers and classrooms, and was even assigned a locker only four down from her old one. Everything was the same.

But it was all different.

She took extra caution walking around one of the kids' trucks because there was a chance it would transform up, like Capta - Optimus did. She wondered if the boy she passed in the hall with vibrant blue eyes and brown hair - and boy she had never seen before in her life except for once, maybe twice while walking through the halls - wasn't a real human. She wondered if everything around her was a lie, if it was all fake. She was over cautious of everything around her.

And everytime something was red, everytime she saw something blue, she wondered briefly if it had any connection to Optimus. It was silly, she knew that, it was nonsense, but she couldn't stop herself. It just... happened.

"Je- oh, hey Jess."

The brunette looked up to lock eyes with a young boy. She smiled tightly.

"Hey James, how are you?"

He smiled. "I'm good, I think I know what I want to be in the future."

She nodded. "What's that?"

"I want to be a psychologist." he smiled.

She smiled. "That's cool. You'll do great kid."

James smiled. "Thanks. Enjoy your day."

She smiled. "Yeah, you too."

James walked away to go hang out with his little group of friends.

She groaned as the pain in her chest got slightly worse. She reached up and pounded on her breast bone with a clenched fist, trying to sooth the pain.

She picked up her black binder, then turned and headed down the hall. She looked out the front doors' windows, and noticed the dark blue Toyota that drove in the parking lot. She wondered briefly if it was a... whatever they were, and part of her almost waited to watch it.

_That's the same blue as the base coat of -_

She stopped herself from finishing that thought and walked away quickly, casting her eyes downward as pain made her be able to feel her hearbeat through her chest.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Jess sat on a hospital bed, leaning all of her weight against the wall. Her eyes were practicaly glued shut; she had her hands pressed against her breast bone, so tightly that it was almost putting too much pressure on her lungs. However, it was ever, ever so slightly relieving the immense amount of pain she was feeling. Her Mom sat in the chair adjacent to her, her hands clasped together, resting her elbows on her knees as she eyed her daughter, more than _fairly_ worried. Harry sat beside Erin, his hand rubbing her back

Jess decided to go back to her old school for a grade thirteen. She managed to contact the trucking company and they promised that if she could graduate from a grade thirteen with an average of or above seventy-nine, she'd be given the position they offered her before. She made it only a couple of weeks in. Those chest pains she'd felt when she first got home had gotten worse and worse to the point where they kept her up at night, crying.

Jess liked to fancy herself a tough girl all around. After what she'd had gone as a kid, she considered herself strong emotionally, as well as mentally; physically she wasn't the _strongest_, but she prided herself on her body, body shape, and level of fitness. She could take a punch easy, although she always preferred non-violence, and while she wasn't a tom boy, she didn't thinks she was totally girly either. She loved driving trucks, and one of her favourite things was to go driving in her Jeep, wheel deep in a massive mud puddle, laughing as she became coated in dirt. She knew how to take a punch, and deal with pain fairly well. But this? This pain was... immobilizing to her.

If she had to describe it, she'd easily be able to say that it worked almost like a pulse system, originating in her chest, then the pain just spread out, down her arms and legs and even to the tips of her fingers. Her Dad had to carry her out to the car and into the hospital because the pain was just **so** bad that she couldn't move.

The doctor walked in to the room, waiting to make sure his coat was out of the way before closing the door behind himself.

"Jessica Robbins..." he mumbled. "From what I can see, Mrs Whiteker, your daughter should be fine. All of her levels are normal exempt for her blood sugar levels, but that's attributed to the lack of food she's digested. You said she can't move?" he asked.

Erin nodded. "My husband had to carry her in. She said it started with just a little pressure on her chest, like someone was pushing on it or pinching it, but over the next three weeks it got increasingly worse to the point where she couldn't go to school. She can't go to school." she corrected, looking over at her daughter.

The blue eyed girl had her eyes squeezed shut, her hand pressed so tightly into her chest you would think that was what was hurting her. She had all of her weight slumped against the wall, unable to hold herself up, and there was a tear running down a dried tear track from before. Erin closed her eyes and placed her head in her hands - her baby girl was in **so much** pain.

"There's nothing you can do at all?" she asked.

The doctor shrugged. "I can prescribe her some pain killers, but it'll practically empty your wallet and there's only a two percent chance it will work. Beyond that, there's nothing. The evidence shows no reason as to why she's in pain to this extent, so I can't prescribe anything else." he answered.

Erin sighed one more time, and Harry rubbed her back again. "Thanks doctor. We'll consider it."

With one last tight smile, the doctor turned and walked out, running his eyes over Jess's pain-crippled form for a millisecond.

Erin turned and landed in Harry's waiting arms, sobbing.

"It's okay." he mumbled, kissing the top of her head as he looked over at Jess. She made a near silent groan, her face stitching closer together with the pain and she moved her legs just a little more before slumping back down.

"Do you want the presriptions? Even if there's a slight chance they'll work we'll figure out how to get the money." he promised.

Erin shook her head. "She wouldn't want them. She wouldn't take them either. Oh Harry." she cried again.

"Shh. It'll be alright, we'll figure it out." her husband promised, rubbing her back soothingly as, yet again, he placed a kiss into her hair.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_

Erin opened the door to her daughter's room, looking over to the corner where the bed sat. Underneath the blanket was what looked like a lump, so motionless you would've thought that her daughter just slipped the extra pillows under her blanket instead of making the bed before she left for school.

In reality, it was her daughter. After their last hospital visit, the pain got so much more worse. It moved from being a pain in her chest that pulsed outwards, to a pain that was everywhere. She said it felt like everything inside her was on fire. The young girl could barely move anymore; _breathing_ became a daily struggle for her. It killed Erin to watch this.

The poor girl missed her own eighteenth birthday because she was too busy crying from the pain.

"Jess?" Erin called.

Her daughter didn't respond, didn't move. She didn't do anything, the only thing reminding Erin that her daughter wasn't dead was the very slight up and down movement from Jess's breathing.

"Baby girl, you gotta say something." She begged, waking over and sitting on the bed beside her.

Jess didn't do anything in reaction; she didn't even pull the blankets off her face.

"Erin!" Harry called from the living room.

With a sigh, Erin left the room and down the stairs, into the living room. Harry stood there with a phone in his hand.

"You actually got him?" She asked.

He nodded. "By some miracle of God, I managed."

Erin took the phone angrily from his hand. "William **Lennox**!" She spat.

"What's wrong?" The military Major asked worriedly over the phone.

"You tell me. Jessica came home and a week or two later she was in pain. You know how bad it's gotten? She can't even _move_, William. A month into school and she can't **move**. So you tell me, what exactly is wrong with my daughter?" She demanded angrily.

It was silent on his end for a second or two, before he responded.

"Repeat that please."

She scoffed. "Are you deaf? Since coming home, my daughter has been in constant physical pain. At this point, she can no longer move. Because of this, she can not go to school. So you tell me, what did you do to her?"

It sounded as if two people wrestled over the phone for a second.

"How did the pain start?" A deep, scratchy voice asked. It wasn't Will.

"Excuse me?"

A hot, fiery feeling started up in her stomach and bubbled up into her throat, her eyes narrowing at the window above the couch where Ollie lay, watching the stairs and waiting for Jess to come down the stairs. He'd been there ever since she stopped coming downstairs, a hopeful glint in his eye that was starting to fade, as if he felt like he'd never see her again.

"Ma'am, I mean, did it start with a pinching feeling in her chest? Or, a pressure on her chest?" The unknown man asked.

"Yes. The next day it was as if someone was pushing her chest and back together and from then on it got worse and worse. She has yet to leave her bed in a week, maybe two." She answered.

The man sighed, before there was the sound of rustling again. She heard muffled mumbles in the background.

"Mrs Robbins-"

"Mrs Whiteker. I am remarried." She cut him off.

"Mrs Whiteker, we'll be at your place within twenty hours. Until then." William said curtly before hanging up.

Erin gapped at the phone, the familiar fiery feeling bubbling up in her stomach and curling up her throat. She gave a frustrated yell, before hanging the phone up and slamming it down on the receiver.

"How **dare **he?!" She yelled.

"Is everything okay, beautiful?" Harry asked, wrapping his arms around her torso.

"That dick; he demands I give my daughter up for an unknown reason, allows me zero contact with her, she only comes home when _she_ demands it, not when I do, and finally when she does come home, she gets sick and now they won't even tell me why? I swear-"

"Relax gorgeous. We'll deal with it when it comes." Harry said, placing a kiss on the side of Erin's neck.

She huffed angrily. "I'm gonna kill him."

Harry huffed out a chuckle. "First let him fix Jess. Then kill him."

Erin huffed either way, but didn't do anything else.

They heard a cry - a scream - from up the stairs and Erin's grip on her husband's hands tightened. Jess was awake.

_**X-X-X-X-X-X-X**_


End file.
